72 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



our bird architects. Finely interlaced and swaying 

 with its intertwined reeds, the nest is always elevated, 

 in this differing from its haunt companion, whose 

 nest never rises out of the tangled herbage at the 

 base of undergrowth. The aerial nest is about 

 nine inches long, and from the basal point ascends 

 to about three and a quarter inches across. The 

 silky down of cotton grass is frequently used as a nest 

 lining. The peculiarly coloured five eggs are bright 

 whitish-grey with pale brown spots. After the 

 young are fledged, they soon begin to climb from the 

 nest to its supports, the reed stems. Then they wander 

 from plant to plant together, and, sticking fast by their 

 long sharp claws, are fed by the parent birds. Not 

 until the time of migration arrives, and the old birds 

 feel the migratory instinct strong upon them, do they 

 entice the young from the reed beds to higher ground, 

 and here they spend the days prior to moving south. 

 Long confounded with the sedge-warbler, this bird 

 has many of its rival's country names, night- 

 warbler and sedge-reedling being among them. 



The grasshopper-warbler is another of our summer 

 migrants, reaching our shore about the middle of 

 April. It is nowhere common, and always locally 

 distributed. Shy and retiring in its habits, it is 

 rarely found far distant from aquatic vegetation. 

 These moist situations are congenial to the bird, 

 as among the plants that affect them it finds its 



