374 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



the belly. Bill dark brown above, pale beneath ; legs, feet, and claws 

 slaty brown ; irides brown. After the autumn moult the rufous colours of 

 the upper and underparts are more pronounced. The nearest ally to the 

 Reed- Warbler is undoubtedly the Marsh-Warbler, from which it is very 

 difficult to distinguish it, except when freshly moulted. It has also three 

 other very near allies A. dumetorum and A. agricola in the Eastern Palae- 

 arctic and Oriental Regions, and A. bceticatus in the South Ethiopian Region; 

 but these species, as might readily be anticipated in birds whose migrations 

 extend over so much smaller an area, have much more rounded wings, the 

 second primary being always shorter than the fifth. In the more pointed- 

 winged species it is sometimes nearly as long as the third, and never much 

 shorter than the fourth. 



REED-WARBLER S NEST. 



