THE MARSH-WARBLERS 75 



or the beginning of June ; while the marsh-warbler, the late-comer, 

 seldom commences until the second week in June. 1 



Building is, as a rule, quickly accomplished, although it may vary 

 according to necessity and position. Usually a second nest, built to 

 replace one that has been destroyed, will be completed very quickly. 

 Naumann records a nest of the reed-warbler built in two or three 

 days, and gives about two days as the time taken by the sedge- warbler. 2 

 I have known a second nest of the marsh-warbler, when the first had 

 been destroyed, completed in three days. 



The two reed- warblers are the master-builders of the Acroce- 

 p/iali; their nests suspended over the water on three, four or five 

 reeds are wonderful examples of a high development in the evolu- 

 tion of nest-building; things of beauty born of extreme specialisa- 

 tion in habitat, they form with the tall, graceful reeds and their 

 waving blue-green foliage, a picture, the decorative quality of which 

 is hardly equalled, certainly not excelled by the nest of any other 

 European bird. The nest of the reed-warbler especially is a most 

 beautiful structure. The reeds on which it is suspended are woven 

 into the outer walls of the nest. It is nearly always made of the 

 dead flower-heads of old reeds which are tightly and firmly woven 

 so as to form a clean, rounded, and slightly incurved rim, and a 

 smooth, deep interior. Sometimes a little wool or moss is worked 

 into the outside near the bottom, and sometimes a little hair is added 

 inside, but the commonest form has only the seed-heads for lining. 

 The depth of cup and incurved rim are necessary, for the frail reeds 

 are blown hither and thither by the wind, and sometimes bent so low 

 that the nest almost touches the water, but the eggs are saved from 

 falling out by the special shape of the nest ; and the mother-bird, her 

 head and tail only showing above the edge, sits on unconcerned in 

 the roughest gale. 



The great reed-warbler does not nest in this country, so I need 



1 These dates refer to the southern counties. In the north and northern midlands they are 

 slightly later. 



2 Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, ii. pp. 38, 68. 





