When Darkness has fallen. 101 



the woods, selecting a note from this and another 

 from that ; for the sedge-warbler is an imitator, 

 a mocking bird, and reproduces in fragments the 

 songs of many species. The little mimic runs up 

 and down the gamut in the most riotous fashion, 

 parodying not only the loud, clear whistle of the 

 blackbird, but the wholly differing soft, sweet 

 notes of the willow-wren. This is kept up 

 through the night, and the puzzle is when the 

 little musician sleeps. If the sedge-warbler 

 ceases its song through any hour of the day 

 or night, a clod thrown into the bushes will 

 immediately set it going again. Yet what can be 

 said of a song that a clod of earth will produce ? 

 Sometimes for a moment it is sweet, but never 

 long-sustained. In the North, where there are 

 few ditches, the species frequents river-banks and 

 the sides of tarns ; in the South, it abounds 

 everywhere in marshy places. Here the rank 

 grass swarms with them ; the thicker the reed- 

 patch or willow, the more birds are there. With 

 perfect silence, a distant view of the bird is 

 sometimes obtained at the top of the bushes, as 

 it flits after an insect. As it runs up and clings 

 to the tall grass stalks, it is pleasing both in form 

 and colour. Among the grasses and water- 

 plants it has its game preserves. Water-beetles, 

 ephemerae, and the teeming aquatic insects 

 constitute its food. To watch through a glass 



