A CROCEPHA L US 1 1 7 



Transcaspia, the Altai, Turkestan, Bokhara, and the Himalayas 

 from Kashmir to Nepal, wintering in India from the Himalayas 

 to Ceylon, and from Sind to Assam and southern Pegu. 



In its general habits is less aquatic than its allies, and 

 frequents not only reeds and trees overhanging the water, but 

 also low bush jungle and is to be met with at an altitude of 

 6,000 feet or even higher. Near St. Petersburg it is generally 

 met with in gardens. Its call-note is a sharp tckik, tchik 

 resembling the sound caused when a flint and steel are struck 

 but I find no description of its song. It places its nest in a 

 low bush near the ground, and the nest is globular with a 

 lateral entrance, rather loosely constructed of grass, and lined 

 with finer grass or horsehair. The eggs which are deposited in 

 May run into three varieties, the first of which are pale rose 

 coloured with violet-grey and reddish brown and a few black 

 spots, the second milky white spotted with olive-brown, and 

 the third dirty white so closely spotted with brown that 

 the ground colour is almost hidden. In size they average 

 about 17-85 by 12'95 millimetres (0'70 by 0'60 inch). 



168. REED- WARBLER. 

 ACROCEPHALUS STREPERUS. 



Acrocephalw streperus, (Vieill.) Nouv. Diet. xi. p. 182 (1817) ; Newton, 

 i. p. 369 ; Gould, B. of Gt. Brit. ii. pi. 73 ; Dresser, ii. p. 567, pi. 87, 

 fig. 1 ; Seebohm, Cat. B. Br. Mus. v. p. 102 ; Saunders, p. 79 ; 

 Lilford, iii. p. 36, pi. 18 ; A . arnmlinaceus, nee. Linn. (Naumann), 

 iii. p. 614, Taf. 81, fig. 2. 



effarvattc, French ; Rcuxinol pequero Lascanigas, 

 Portu. ; Pinzoleta, Span. ; Cannajola minore, Ital. ; Teichscinger 

 German ; Kleine Karekiet, Dutch ; Rorsanger, Dan. ; Rorsdngare, 

 Swed. ; Trostnikovaja-Kameschcfka, Russ. ; Trzcionka, Polish. 



ad. (Italy). Upper parts pale brown with a rufous tinge ; wings and tail 

 hair-brown margined with rufous brown ; superciliary line pale yellowish 

 buff ; underparts pale buff darkest on the flanks ; bill dark horn, 

 yellowish at the base below ; legs slaty brown ; iris dark brown. Culmen 

 0'6, wing 2-55, tail, 2'05, tarsus 0*9 inch ; second quill about equal to tlse 

 fourth ; female similar but rather smaller ; in the winter the underparts 

 are more tinged with buff. 



Hal. Europe generally, from southern Sweden and Great 

 Britain to the Mediterranean, and from Portugal to Palestine, 

 Asia Minor, Persia, and Afghanistan, wintering in Central 

 Africa. 



