LAKE, SWAMP, AND REED BED. 115 



new road was made along a portion of this reed 

 bed, but the Sedge Warblers return as usual, even 

 though every season the road becomes busier with 

 human traffic, and many houses have been built. 

 One end of this marsh is being rapidly filled up 

 with all sorts of rubbish and refuse, with a view 

 to more house-building, and yet summer after 

 summer the little brown-coated Warblers appear 

 and make the best of things. All through the 

 summer nights their varied songs may be heard 

 amidst the noise of traffic, and unsilenced by the 

 passers-by; and there can be little if any doubt 

 the birds will return to the old familiar breeding 

 place as long as sufficient cover remains standing. 

 In the autumn and winter Finches of various 

 kinds resort to these reed beds in quest of the 

 seeds, and not unfrequently we have detected 

 Goldfinches and Tree Sparrows amongst them. 

 The latter birds visit us during winter in small 

 flocks, but somewhat irregularly. Two winters 

 ago a party of a dozen practically lived on the 

 border of the reed bed described above, obtaining 

 almost all their food upon a waste bit of ground 

 but a few yards square, which was overgrown with 

 docks, plantain, and groundsel. These birds were 



