SEDGE WARBLER. 291 



five or six in number, eight lines long by six lines in 

 breadth, of a pale yellowish brown colour, slightly mottled, 

 and sometimes streaked with darker brown. These, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Jenyns, are hatched towards the end of 

 May or the beginning of June. 



The Sedge Warbler, as before observed, is neither so 

 local nor so limited in numbers as the species which here 

 precedes it, or those which follow it. 



The marshy banks of the Thames, on either side of the 

 river where beds of willows or reeds abound, are well 

 stocked with this bird ; although from the wet and 

 muddy nature of the ground they are not very easy to 

 get at. In the southern and western counties it occurs 

 in Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, and in 

 Wales ; and from Mr. Wm. Thompson of Belfast, I learn 

 that it is a regular summer visitor to the North of Ireland. 

 It occurs also in the marshes of Essex, in Suffolk, Norfolk, 

 Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Lancashire, 

 and was traced by Mr. Selby in Sutherlandshire to the 

 northern extremity of the island : "it was found pretty 

 generally distributed along the margins of the lochs, parti- 

 cularly where low birchen coppice and reedy grass abound- 

 ed. The well-known babbling notes of this wakeful little 

 bird proclaimed its presence in many unexpected situ- 

 ations." Mr. Hewitson saw it in Norway ; M. Nilsson 

 records it as a summer visitor to Sweden ; and Pennant, in 

 his Arctic Zoology, says it frequents Russia and Siberia 

 even to the Arctic Circle. It inhabits all the marshes and 

 sides of rivers in Holland ; is a common bird in Germany, 

 France, Provence, and Italy, which last country it leaves 

 early in October and returns in April. It is found in 

 Corfu, Sicily, Malta, and Crete. Mr. Strickland saw 

 this species at Smyrna in December. 



u2 



