AMERICAN ANIMALS 77 



suspect it is a second sort of locustella, hinted at by Dr. Derham 

 in Ray's Letters : see p. 108. He also procured me a grass- 

 hopper-lark. 



The question that you put with regard to those genera of 

 animals that are peculiar to America, viz. how they came there, 



near the ground, or in a thick bush, often amid the vigorous shoots from a low stool of willow, 

 constructing a deep and rather massive nest, in which are deposited six, and not unfrequently 

 seven eggs, of a pale colour, inclining to greenish, dotted all over with minute confluent specks 

 of a deeper tint, intermingled generally with some larger cinereous spots, and sometimes dashes 

 of dark brown, with often an obscure zone round the large end. The young have some dark 

 spots on the breast in their first plumage. 



Another species, common in many parts of the south of England, but much more local than 

 the S phTagmitis, is the fen-reedliug (S. arundinaeea) , a bird un- 

 known to Mr. White, and wholly confined to reedy places, where 

 it chirrups much in the same strain as the other, its song being 

 however rather less varied, and containing one or two peculiar 

 deep notes that are not unpleasing. This bird is of an almost 

 uniform olive-brown, paler underneath, and the bill is larger than 

 in the sedge-reedling, which latter it otherwise considerably re- 

 sembles, all the genus (including the locustelles) having a pecu- 

 liar faint silky glisten on many parts of their plumage. The fen- 

 reedling builds rather a beautiful nest, which it binds to three or 

 four contiguous reed- stems, or interlaces with the upright sprigs 

 of willow or poplar growing near the water. Often when affixed ; 

 to the reeds it is blown about so as almost to touch the water, the = 

 bird perhaps sitting all the while ; but the nest is of course so 

 constructed with a very deep hollow that the eggs cannot easily 



tumble out. They are usually four or five in number, of a pale and Fen Reedling. 



somewhat greenish tint, with different sized spots and blotches of brown and dusky ash-colour, 

 which in some are pale and indistinct, and in others form a coarse zone around the large end, 

 where there are often markings of a darker colour. I never remember to have seen this bird 

 sing upon the wing. 



There is a species on the continent of Europe, the marsh-reedling (S. palustriil, so closely re- 

 sembling the last that it can hardly be told from it, save by a slight difference in the make of 

 the bill, which is flatter ; yet it is curious, as showing how little the precise haunts of one spe- 

 cies can be inferred from those of another, that this bird (at least according to Temminck, who 

 speaks on the subject with much decision) is " never" perhaps hardly ever would be more cor- 

 rect seen among the reeds, though it frequents the willowy banks of streams, but is oftener 

 found in moist thickets near the water, where it commonly breeds among the bushes. It 

 abounds in many parts of the south-east of Europe, and its song is said to differ from that of the 

 fen-reedling. Another closely-allied species, but of a darker colour, with smaller bill and larger 

 tail-feathers, is the bouscarle-reedling (S. cetti) , of which, according to Temminck, several indi- 

 viduals have been killed in England, from which he therefore infers that its geographical range 

 is greater than is generally supposed. There can be little doubt, however, that Mons. Temminck 

 was herein misinformed, as no British naturalist has observed it. This bird is said to remain 

 throughout the year in Sardinia. There has been a nest found, however, with one small white 

 egg in it, by the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, in a willow-fork beside a brook, in Yorkshire, 

 evidently belonging to a bird of this genus, which can be reconciled with no description of that 

 of any of the known species, all of which lay spotted eggs : this is mentioned that country ob- 

 servers may be a little on the look-out for additional species. There are various other foreign 

 members of the genus (all found, however, in the old continent), one of which, of large size, th 

 great reedling (S. turdoides), a delightful songster, allied to those last described, is not uncom 

 mon in Holland, but has never yet been known to visit this country, wnere its musica powers 

 preclude the possibility of its being overlooked. 



The different reedlings are easily kept in confinement upon the food usually given to insecti- 

 vorous birds, and soon become very tame, but require more attention than the fauvets, from 

 being less general feeders. They should have plenty of chopped meat and egg, and as much in- 

 sect diet as possible. The most tender of the tribe is the S. turdoides. ED 



