BEED- WARBLER. 115 



mud and water up to the middle, and even then it is 

 quite a chance to find one." 



SALICARIA STREPERA (Vieillot).* 

 REED-WARBLER. 



The Eeed- Warbler, as its name implies, is confined 

 almost exclusively to the reed beds on the broads and 

 rivers, being far more local in its habits, and less 

 numerous as a species than the sedge warbler; it also 

 arrives somewhat later in the spring, and leaves us again 

 earlier in the autumn. The beautiful little nests of 

 this species, so carefully and curiously suspended on the 

 stems of the reeds, are, with the exception perhaps 

 of the long-tailed titmouse, the most interesting in 

 construction of any of our British birds. They are 

 formed externally of dried grasses, stalks of plants, 

 and the feathery tops of the reed, the latter generally 

 forming the only lining, with occasionally a bit of wool 

 or a stray feather or two on the edge of the structure. 

 The materials are, however, occasionally much more 

 diversified, especially when, as I shall presently show, 

 the nests are constructed in bushes and garden shrubs. 

 One of these, now before me, is composed externally of 

 dried grasses, studded over with little patches of wool ; 

 the interior consisting of a layer of moss, lined with a 



* I am compelled in this instance to depart from the nomencla- 

 ture of Yarrell. The specific name arundinaceus was first applied 

 by Lmnaaus to a bird the Great Reed Warbler which being con- 

 generic with the one mentioned in the text, is properly entitled to 

 that appellation ; and the next name in order of priority, as shewn 

 by Mr. G. R. Gray (List Br. B. in Br. Mus., p. 49), is Vieillot's 

 strepera, which I accordingly adopt, as does Mr. Hewitson, in his 

 last edition of his ' Eggs of British Birds' (p. 119). 

 Q2 



