PRELIMINAKY CLASSIFIED NOTES 25 



6. Song Period. From arrival to second or third week of July, and occa- 

 sionally as late as the end of the first week of August, [w. P.] 



AQUATIC- WARBLER [Acrocephalus aquaticus (Gmelin). French, 

 fauvette des marais ; German, Binsen-Rohrsdnger ; Italian, pagliarolo.] 



1. Description. The aquatic-warbler bears some resemblance to the sedge- 

 vvarbler, but may be distinguished by the very broad superciliary stripe, the broad 

 light brown stripe along the centre of the crown, and the striated rump. The sexes 

 are alike. (No plate.) Length 4'9 in. [124 mm.]. The crown, as pointed out above, 

 is marked by a central band of pale tawny buff, bounded on either side by a broad 

 band of black, which in turn is succeeded by a broad buff superciliary stripe. The 

 feathers of the rest of the upper parts are of a tawny buff, brighter on the lower 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, and broadly streaked with central shaft 

 streaks of dark brown, less distinct on the rump and upper tail-coverts. The wing- 

 coverts and inner secondaries are blackish edged with pale tawny buff. Primary 

 coverts and quills dark brown with narrow tawny margins, broader in the 

 secondaries. Tail feathers similarly coloured. Cheeks and under parts light 

 tawny buff, a little whiter on the throat and abdomen. In the summer narrow 

 blackish streaks appear on the foreneck and flanks, a very unusual feature in a 

 warbler. The autumn plumage differs from that of the spring in that the buff 

 colours are more intense. The juvenile plumage resembles that of the adult in 

 autumn, [w. P. p.] 



2. Distribution. Hitherto this species has not been proved to breed in the 

 British Isles, but is a summer visitor to the Continent south of the Baltic, though the 

 evidence with regard to its nesting in Spain is contradictory, and it is absent from the 

 Balkan Peninsula south of Herzegovina and the Danube. It apparently breeds in 

 Sicily and Sardinia and probably also in North-west Africa. It is readily confused 

 with the sedge-warbler, and it is possible that a few pairs may nest with us, as it has 

 been obtained on a few occasions here in the summer months. It is found in winter 

 in North-west Africa, but its range in this continent is still very imperfectly known, 

 though probably it extends to its tropical area. [r. c. E. J.] 



3. Migration. This species, judging from the records, would appear to be an 

 autumnal bird of passage of irregular occurrence to this country. If we except 

 a young bird now in Mr. Jourdain's possession taken near Leicester during the 

 summer of 1864 (Harting, Ibis, 1867, p. 468), a pair of adult birds hi my own 



VOL. II. D 



