156 BIRD GALLERY. 



No. 54. GARDEN- WARBLER. (Sylvia hortensis.) 



A summer visitor, arriving in the end of April or the beginning of 

 May and locally distributed over the British Islands till about the end 

 of September. Low bushes and brambles in gardens or copses are the 

 sites usually selected for the nest, which is rather loosely constructed of 

 grass-stems, with a well-shaped inner cup of horse-hair. The eggs, 

 four or five in number, are white, marked and blotched with greenish- 

 brown, dark brown, and violet-grey, and resemble one variety of those 

 laid by the Blackcap. 



Norfolk, May. 



Presented by Lord Walsingham. 



No. 55. SEDGE-WARBLER. (Acrocephalus phragmitis.) 



One of our commonest Warblers, and generally distributed over the 

 British Islands from the latter half of April till the end of September, 

 when the majority go south. The nest, which is never suspended like 

 that of the Reed-Warbler, is generally placed in a low bush or, among 

 rank herbage, by the side of some stream or ditch. Five or six eggs of 

 a yellowish clay-colour, clouded or mottled with brownish and often 

 streaked with black hair-lines, are laid in May. 



Norfolk, July. 

 Presented by Lord Walsingham. 



Nos. 56 & 57. REED- WARBLER. 



(Acrocephalus streperus.) 



This summer visitor arrives in England towards the end of April and 

 remains till September, but it is rare to the north of Yorkshire, is un- 

 known in Scotland, and not yet proved to occur in Ireland. The nest, 

 a compactly built structure of fine dry grass, lined with wool, horse- 

 hair, and flowering grasses, is generally suspended on reeds or on the 

 slender branches of willows and alders, which are woven into the sides. 

 It is situated from three to twelve feet above the surface of the water 

 and sometimes at a greater elevation. Four or five greenish-white eggs, 

 clouded and blotched with dark olive and ash, are laid towards the end of 

 May. The Cuckoo frequently places its egg in the nest of this species. 



Sussex, June. 

 Presented by Dr. R. Bawdier Sharpe. 



