62 BIRDS BROWN ABOVE AND WHITE BELOW. 



ends of the twigs for small life, and may also be seen 

 threading the thickets and hedge-bottoms with the 

 creeping motions of a Wren. 



SEDGE-WARBLER 5 inches; flat-browed; upper parts 

 brown, heavily streaked with dark brown ; conspicuous 

 white eyebrow. Although this bird also has a sus- 

 tained, gabbling song, it is generally heard beside water. 



REED- WARBLER 5 inches; upper parts plain ruddy- 

 brown, therefore no ashy head ; under parts white, 

 but buffish. Although this bird uses a continuous 

 prattling song somewhat similar to that of the White- 

 throat, the bird itself is a denizen of reed and osier beds. 



LESSER WHITETHROAT 5J inches ; upper parts gray ; 

 bill blackish ; legs slate. Song, opening with a few sub- 

 dued notes, bursts out in a high-pitched note, exactly 

 repeated several times. This song is generally delivered 

 from high trees. 



LESSER WHITETHROAT. Form, like Common 

 Whitethroat (plate 25). Length, 5i inches. Upper 

 parts brownish-gray ; wing and tail feathers brown 

 with lighter margins, the outer feathers of the tail 

 partly white ; under parts white ; bill blackish ; legs 

 slate ; iris white. Summer migrant. 



Eggs. 5-6, creamy-white, blotched and spotted 

 with gray and yellowish-brown, and with some 

 smaller markings of a darker brown; '65 * '5 inch 

 (plate 124). 



Nest. Shallow, made of dry grass, lined with hair, 

 and placed in hedges and in low bushes and brambles. 



Distribution. Principally in the southern counties 

 of England, but not in Cornwall ; rarer from the 

 Midlands to south Scotland ; Brecon ; not in Ireland. 



