Early in May the Sedge Warbler commences to build its nest, which is 

 always supported by the branches or growing plants, and never suspended 

 between the reeds like that of the Reed Warbler. On the shores of the lakes 

 and streams the nest is usually built in some convenient fork in the willow 

 bushes, or in the bushes choked with grass and covered with brambles which 

 grow along the confines of some swampy piece of ground. In the Norfolk 

 broads I have frequently found it on the ground, or supported on a heap of 

 dead Carex, and it is often built in the bottom of some hedge growing alongside 

 a deep broad ditch. If the marsh be a large one, and suitable tangles be few 

 and small, many nests may be found within a few yards of one another. They 

 are simple, unassuming little structures of dry grass stems, bits of sedge and 

 moss, lined with hair, and sometimes with the down of marsh plants or reed 

 flowers. 



Five or six eggs are laid, very rarely seven. They may be divided into 

 two types, though they go through nearly every intermediate variety. The first 

 type is greenish buff with pale and rather indistinct mottlings of buffish 

 brown. The second is buff in general colour, with very pronounced markings 

 of rich brown, and sometimes deep reddish brown. The ground-colour of both 

 types is a pale bluish white, but it is nearly always entirely hidden by a buffish 

 tinge which suffuses the whole egg. Nearly all varieties are also marked with 

 fine scratchy lines of blackish brown ; on some specimens these lines are so 

 fine as to be almost invisible, while on others they are bold and distinct. The 

 eggs vary in length from 74 to "58 inch, and in breadth from '54 to "49 inch. 



Only one brood is reared during the season, but if the first clutch be 

 destroyed a second nest is built, generally not very far from the original site. 

 The Sedge Warbler, which frequents the tangled vegetation, "may be easily 

 distinguished from the Reed Warbler, which lives among the reeds, as the 

 former bird has a spotted appearance and the latter a plain one no doubt a 

 provision of Nature for protection, so that each bird may be as inconspicuous 

 as possible in its different haunt. 



142 



