AMONG THE BIRDS IN SUMMER. 109 



great celerity, and now and then you are greeted 

 with bursts of defiant song. By using the greatest 

 caution in parting the reeds aside you may per- 

 chance be fortunate enough to see the little brown 

 musician clinging to the swaying reed. The most 

 casual search amongst the reeds will reward you 

 with a sight of the nest of this Warbler. It is 

 suspended on three or four reed stems several 

 feet above the water, and is wafted about by 

 every breeze that disturbs the reeds. The nest, 

 as we learnt in spring, is made of coarse, dry 

 grass, fine roots, and a few scraps of moss, lined 

 with finer grass, and sometimes a little vegetable 

 down. It is made rather deep, probably to pre- 

 vent the eggs or young from being pitched out 

 during high winds. The eggs are four or five in 

 number, bluish-green, spotted and blotched with Ree d war- 

 greenish-brown and gray. Reed Warblers are i!t 

 very quarrelsome little birds, and each pair take 

 possession of some particular part of the reeds or 

 osiers, from which they drive all intruders. This 

 interesting bird sings incessantly through the 

 early summer, not only in the daytime, but fre- 

 quently all through the night, joining with the 

 Sedge Warbler and the Nightingale in making 

 the few short hours of darkness about the summer 

 solstice resonant with melody. 



The hay meadows in summer are a favourite 

 haunt of many interesting birds, not only when 

 the tall grass is rapidly ripening for the scythe, 

 but when the verdant crop is laid low by the 



