SYLVIADJE. 59 



with spots and patches of brown and light-grey. The Lesser 

 Whitethroat is unknown in Scotland or Ireland. 



THE SEDGE WARBLER. Salicaria phragmites. Like the 

 Whitethroats, this is a summer visitor, but frequents 

 marshy lands and the banks of lakes or rivers, wherever reed 

 or osier beds afford it shelter. The nest, attached to the 

 stems of reeds or twigs of osier, is formed of dry grasses 

 and a little moss, lined with hair and finer grass. The eggs/ 

 of a pale-brown colour, thickly freckled with a darker shade 

 of the same, are four or five, and at times it is said even six 

 or seven, in number. (PI. IX. fig. 56.) 



THE REED WAEBLER. Salicaria arundinacea, The Eeed 

 Wren, as this bird is also called, is another of our summer 

 warblers, and closely resembles the last species in its habits 

 and disposition ; it is however a larger bird, and not so ex- 

 tensively distributed as the last, though frequently found in 

 the reed-beds of our southern and eastern counties. Its 

 nest is suspended between the stalks of reeds or aquatic 

 plants, and generally formed of long grass with some por- 

 tions of reed, and lined with fine grass and hair. In its 

 form the nest is particularly deep, being so constructed 

 doubtless to prevent the eggs or young from being thrown 

 out when the wind forces the nest, as it often must do, 



