70 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



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 ever sleeps. I have 

 said that my angler friends call this bird the " fisher- 

 man's nightingale." 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 mud 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 meres; 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 seem to be there. 

 With perfect silence a distant view is sometimes 

 obtained of the bird as it comes out at the top of 

 the bushes and flits after an insect. As it rises up 

 and clings to the tall green 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 minute aquatic insects 

 constitute its food. To watch with a glass the 

 obtaining of these is most interesting. At the base 

 of a tuft of the coarsest water herbage the sedge- 



