38 Order 1 



it does not despise clearings in woods and heathery 

 moors. Imaginative writers even talk of it creeping 

 like a mouse. Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire and the 

 Norfolk Broads are favourite resorts, but the discovery 

 of the nest, always a matter of difficulty, there becomes 

 almost an impossibility except to sedge-cutters. It is 

 composed of grass and a quantity of moss, and contains 

 five or six lovely white eggs with dull pink stippling. 

 This Warbler has a characteristic habit of spreading its 

 tail on being flushed from the nest, a fact which draws 

 attention to an otherwise inconspicuous brown bird with 

 darker streaks above and lighter tints below. It ranges 

 in Britain as far north as Skye, and over the continent 

 of Europe south of the Baltic, with south Norway and 

 Finland; but eastward the limits are doubtful. The 

 food consists mainly of aquatic insects and their larvae. 

 Savi's Warbler (L. luscinioides) was only recognised 

 as distinct by Savi in 1824, though Temminck had 

 previously seen a Norfolk specimen and determined it 

 as a Reed Warbler. To our country it was always an 

 uncommon summer migrant, but it probably bred 

 regularly in the Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Hunting- 

 donshire fens, if not in Suffolk, until its disappearance 

 in 1856. Southward from Holland, where it is now 

 much rarer than formerly, it is found scattered over 

 Europe, reaching to north-west Africa and west 

 Turkestan. Savi's Warbler resembles its congener in 

 general habits, but has a far harsher note ; in colour it 

 is of a plainer reddish brown. The nest is most 

 peculiar, being composed of broad sedge leaves or of 

 the grass Glyceria aquatica ; the eggs are marked with 

 purplish grey instead of pink. 



