THE MARSH-WARBLERS 77 



favourite plants are meadow-sweet, comfry, willow-herb, and various 

 willows and osiers. Of these last, according to Mr. Warde Fowler, 

 it shows a predeliction for Salix triandra, the other osier com- 

 monly found in withy-beds (& r//////^///'s) being less suitable. 1 As the 

 steins of these plants afford more support than reeds, the attachment 

 is not of so fine a nature as is that of the nest of the reed-warbler. 

 The whole structure is, in fact, less compact than that of the latter 

 species ; the commonest materials are rather coarse, dry bents, 

 as used by some of the warblers in other genera (e.g. blackcap and 

 garden-warbler) ; sometimes a little moss or wool is introduced into 

 the exterior, and generally there is a slight lining of horse-hair and 

 fine fibrous roots. 



Several stems of the supporting plants are woven into the nest and 

 thus pass through its outer walls, but the main attachment is to two 

 or three, generally two, large stems ; that part of the upper rim of the 

 nest which passes round these stems is stretched and separated from 

 the main rim of the nest. The loops thus formed have been most 

 aptly described by Mr. Warde Fowler as "basket-handles." 2 They 

 form a very characteristic feature, and, together with a general loose- 

 ness of structure, will always serve to distinguish the nest from that of 

 the reed-warbler. With regard to position of the nests of the two 

 species, there would be no difficulty in identification if the reed- 

 warbler never departed from its usual habit of building in reeds over 

 water. 



Naumann wrote 3 that he had never seen a reed- warbler's 

 nest in reeds not over water, but mentions one built in thin, 

 vertical twigs mixed with nettles, and one in the stems of Typha 

 angustifolia.* From his special mention of these two nests, he 

 apparently did not know that it is by no means unusual in this 

 country for the reed-warbler to nest in such plants, and also others 

 normally affected by the marsh-warbler. I think it extremely 



1 Zoologist, 1900, p. 406. 2 Ibid., p. 407. 



3 Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, ii. 68. < The lesser reed-mace. 



