PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 23 



(PI. 54.) The sexes are alike, and there is no seasonal change of plumage. Length 

 5 in. [127 mm.]. The upper parts are of a russet-brown shading into rusty-brown 

 on the rump and upper tail-coverts. There is a conspicuous buff superciliary stripe 

 bounded above by a black band, while the centre of the crown is marked by thin 

 lines of black alternating with the russet-brown ground-colour. The lores, and upper 

 margin of the ear-coverts are dusky, forming a dark band interrupted by the eye. 

 While the hind-neck is almost unspotted, the feathers of the back have blackish 

 brown centres forming well-marked striations. The wing-coverts are blackish brown 

 margined with umber-brown, while the innermost secondaries are blackish brown 

 margined with light umber ; the rest of the secondaries and primaries are brown with 

 paler edges, the primaries having narrow whitish brown tips. The tail feathers are 

 dark umber with paler edges. The under parts are whitish, relieved on the sides 

 of the neck and fore-breast by buff which acquires an umber tinge on the flanks and 

 under tail-coverts. The juvenile plumage differs from that of the adults in that 

 it is richer, and the sides of the neck and fore-breast are faintly spotted with 

 brownish grey. [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. As a breeding species widely distributed throughout the 

 British Isles and the Continent of Europe, excepting only the north of Scandinavia 

 and Russia, the Iberian Peninsula and the southern parts of the Italian and Balkan 

 peninsulas. It is also found in the summer months in Asia eastward to the Yenesei 

 and south to Turkestan, and probably also breeds in North-west Africa. It is 

 a common summer visitor to all parts of Great Britain, except the mountain 

 systems, but becomes less numerous in northern Scotland and is decidedly rare in 

 the low-lying parts of Ross and Sutherland. It is also found in the Isle of Man, 

 locally in the Inner Hebrides, on Skye and the Orkneys, and has been met with 

 on Barra. In Ireland, though irregularly distributed, it breeds in every county. 

 Outside its breeding-range it is distributed in winter through Asia Minor, and 

 tropical and Southern Africa, ranging south to the Congo, Angola, and Damara- 

 land on the west, and German East Africa, Zambesia, and the Transvaal. 

 {F. c. E. j.] 



3. Migration. This species, which is one of our commonest summer visitors, 

 appears to arrive on our south coast in small parties. The large flocks, so con- 

 spicuous a feature of some other species, have not been noticed in the case of the 

 sedge-warbler. Although there can be little doubt that the bulk of the birds enter 

 this country from the south-west, yet in several seasons the earliest records have come 

 from Kent, but it is more than probable that these were stragglers from a continental 



