328 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



BREEDING-HABITS. Haunts lagoons and marshes with thick 

 growth of reeds, sedge and marsh vegetation. Nest. Well con- 

 cealed among masses of dead reed and clumps of sedge, and 

 invisible from above, built like a tiny Rail or Waterhen's nest of 

 dried leaves of Glycerium, but not invariably, as some nests are 

 neatly lined with much finer leaves and marsh grasses. Eggs. 

 4 to 6, greyish-white, closely freckled all over with fine spots of 

 grey- brown and violet shell -marks. Average of 100 eggs 19.7 X 

 14.5 mm. Breeding-season. From mid-April in south Europe 

 through May, but second half of May in central Europe. Probably 

 double brooded. 



FOOD. Mainly insects and their larvae, especially marsh -haunting 

 species, coleoptera, lepidoptera, diptera, neuroptera, etc. Small 

 worms also said to be taken. 



DISTRIBUTION. England. Formerly regular summer-resident in 

 small numbers fens of Norfolk, Cambs., and Hunts., but has not 

 appeared since 1856. A bird thought to be of this species seen in 

 Humber district May 24, 1897, and another said to have been seen in 

 Bucks., and another in Suffolk. One obtained West St. Leonards 

 (Sussex), May 30, 1916 (J. B. Nichols, Brit. B., X., p. 167). 

 Scotland. One obtained and another seen Fair Isle, May 14, 1908 

 (W. E. Clarke, Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1909, p. 73 ; Studies in 

 Migration, II, p. 135). 



DISTRIBUTION. Abroad. Spain, parts of France, Holland, and 

 near Geldern in the Rhenish Provinces, Italy, Sicily, Galizia, 

 Poland, parts of Russia, Hungary, and valley of Danube, also 

 Egypt, and north-west Africa. Winter-quarters not precisely 

 known, but recorded Khartoum (in March). Replaced by paler race 

 in Transcaspia and Turkestan. 



LOCUSTELLA CERTHIOLA 



138. Locustella certhiola (Pall.) PALLAS 'S GRASSHOPPER- 

 WARBLER. 



MOTACILLA CERTHIOLA Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat., i, p. 509 (1827 



Transbaikalia). 



Locustella certhiola Pall., Grant, Bull. B O.C., xxin, p. 18 ; Barrington, 



Brit. B., ir, p. 230. 



DESCRIPTION. Adult male and female. Winter. Fore-head brown, 

 scarcely streaked ; crown, nape and mantle broadly streaked 

 brown-black, feather-edges being brown to pale brown on crown and 

 mantle, and more greyish on nape ; back of neck brown with fewer 

 streaks ; back and rump rufous-brown, sometimes without streaks 

 but usually with a few ; upper tail-coverts rufous-brown, usually 

 with somewhat drop-shaped black mesial streaks, but occasionally 



