138 SOUTH COUNTRY TROUT STREAMS 



holding trout, such as the Milverton, which comes 

 from near Wiveliscombe, the Norton, the Kingston, 

 and the Black, which joins at Taunton. Trout 

 run from -| lb. to i lb. in the Tone, and the chief 

 flies are the May-fly, March brown, February 

 red, blue uprights, and duns. Fly fishing and the 

 artificial minnow are the methods of angling, and 

 at Taunton there is an Association, which pre- 

 serves a portion of the stream. The Tone, which 

 is fairly clear and rapid, flows through an undu- 

 lating and well-wooded country, and in addition 

 to trout it contains dace, roach, eels, and other 

 fish. It may interest anglers who are fond of 

 birds and bird-life to hear that hard by Taunton 

 the marsh warbler {Acrocephahis pahistris) has 

 more than once been found breeding. The claim 

 of this interesting bird to be regarded as a British 

 species has only been established within quite 

 recent years, but it has probably often enough 

 been taken for the far commoner frequenter of 

 our streams and their immediate vicinities, the reed 

 warbler. I have never been so fortunate as to 

 come across the very local marsh warbler, but do 

 not despair of making its acquaintance some day 

 during an angling excursion. Its song is said 

 by some to be only second to that of the Nightin- 

 gale itself. Scebohm asserts that its song recalls 

 those of the swallow, the lark, the tree warbler, 

 the nightingale, and the blue throat — "not so 

 loud as that of the nightingale, but almost as rich 

 and decidedly more varied." The marsh warbler 

 is not to be confused with the still scarcer aquatic 

 warbler {Acrocephahis aqiiaticus), a specimen of 

 which was, I see, obtained last year at Farlington, 

 in south-east Hampshire. 



