60 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



nearly to the surface of the water. The eggs, four or five 

 in number, are more deeply coloured and more distinctly 

 spotted than those of the Sedge Warbler. 



THE GREAT SEDGE WARBLER. Salicaria turdoides. The 

 Great Sedge Warbler of Holland and other parts of the 

 Continent, builds a nest similar in form to that of the Eeed 

 Warbler, among the stalks of reeds. The nest is composed 

 almost entirely of the blossoms and tops of reeds and other 

 grasses, bound together with their stalks and leaves. The 

 eggs, four or five in number, are greenish-white, spotted 

 and speckled with ash-grey and reddish-brown. 



THE RUFOUS SEDGE WARBLER. Salicaria galactotes. 

 This bird, little known in Britain, was shot on the South 

 Downs, near Brighton, by a person who took it for a cream- 

 coloured Nightingale. The bird is found in Spain, parti- 

 cularly in the valleys of Andalusia, nesting among the 

 shrubs of oleander. The plumage is described as resem- 

 bling in colour that of our well-known Bearded Tit. Its 

 food is said to be grasshoppers and other insects generally ; 

 and its eggs are of a pale greenish- white, spotted and 

 speckled over with two shades of darker greenish-brown, 

 very similar in colour to the eggs of the Great Sedge War- 

 bler and Eeed Warbler. 



