82 THE WARBLERS 



cover of the rushes. I have seen the great reed-warbler fly from the 

 reeds and sing in the branches of willows and white poplars, while 

 the marsh-warbler is notoriously given to singing in the branches of 

 high bushes and trees. 



All are night songsters ; in fact there is hardly any time in the 

 twenty-four hours when they are really silent the quietest times 

 being in the chill of dawn, and the hottest hours of noon. 



With the brilliant exception of the marsh-warbler the song of 

 the Acrocephali is more fascinating than melodious. When analysed, 

 there is much that is harsh and incoherent, especially in the song of 

 the sedge-warbler. Both reed-warblers have higher-pitched voices, 

 and less of the grating notes of the sedge-warbler ; the great reed- 

 warbler, however, has a harshness of its own, a rattling note quite 

 distinct from that of any other of its congeners. 



The general impression one receives of the family song is a 

 running alternation of chattering, scolding notes, " chew-chew-chew- 

 gurrh, gurrrh" and sudden bursts of babbling sweet-toned song, 

 that seem to include a blending of the characters of the songs of 

 other birds, all of which change back again to the "jabber-jabber- 

 jabber, chew-chew-chew, gurrh," with a sudden stop, always where 

 least expected. It is easy to start a sedge-warbler off again by 

 throwing something into its hiding-place a plan that seldom fails 

 to bring forth a torrent of protesting notes, even as an imitation 

 of a cock-crow sets all the cocks within hearing crowing, in defiance 

 of the imitator, and against each other. Indeed there seems 

 much in the singing of male birds comparable with the crowing 

 of cocks. 



I recall a hot sultry June afternoon in an overgrown withy-bed. 

 As I stood in the midst of a veritable jungle of 15 to 20 feet osiers, I 

 could see three reed-warbler nests and as many male birds, each with 

 feathers erect, drooping tail, and throbbing throat pouring out a 

 melody of defiance (or what seemed like defiance) to each other. 

 From the surrounding osiers other birds which I could not see were 



