ACROCEPHALUS 119 



species, and somewhat resembles that of the Icterine Warbler, 

 but is richer and of more compass. It is also an excellent 

 mimic. It never places its nest amongst reeds or over the 

 water, but in a bush, amongst rank herbage or in tangled 

 brushwood, on dry ground, and seldom below from one to three 

 feet above the ground. It is constructed of dry plant-stems, 

 grasses, and nettle-fibres interwoven with insect-webs, and 

 lined with fine grass-bents and horsehairs. The eggs 4 to 6 

 in number are usually deposited in June, and are French 

 white, occasionally with a faint greenish tinge, somewhat 

 sparingly marked with small purplish grey shell-markings, and 

 larger dark brown or purplish brown surface-spots, which are 

 usually more numerous at the larger end. In size they average 

 about 0'73 by 0'52. 



170. GREAT REED-WARBLER. 

 ACROCEPHALUS ARUNDINACEUS. 



Aerocephalas arundinaceus, (Linn.) Syst. Nat. i. p. 296 (1766) ; 

 (Hewitson), i. p. 122, pi. xxxii. figs. 3, 4 ; Newton, i. p. 364 ; Dresser, 

 ii. p. 579, pi. 88 ; A . turdoides, (Meyer), Vog. Liv. and Esthl. p. 

 116 (1815); (Naumann), iii. p. 597, Taf. 81, fig. 1 ; (Gould), B. of 

 E. pi. 106 ; (id.) B. of Gt. Brit. ii. pi. 72 ; Seebohm, Cat. B. Br. Mus. 

 v. p. 95 ; Saunders, p. 83 ; Lilford, iii. p. 34, pi. 17. 



Eousserolle, French ; Eouxinol dos patis, Portug. ; Carrisalero, 

 Span. ; Cannaseccione, Ital. ; Karakiet, Rietlijster, Dutch. 



$ ad. (S. Russia). Upper parts dull light brown tinged with warm 

 rufescent olivaceous ; quills and tail brown, the former with lighter 

 margins ; an indistinct dull white supercilium ; under parts white, the 

 underwing and tail-coverts and flanks washed with pale warm fawn-colour ; 

 a few indistinct striae on the throat ; bill brown, the lower mandible 

 yellowish at the base ; legs light brown ; iris dark brown. Culmen 

 0-78, wing 3'85, tail 3' 15, tarsus 1'2 inch ; first primary small, much 

 shorter than the coverts, 2nd and 3rd equal and longest. Female similar, 

 the young have the upper parts tinged with rusty ochreous, the supercilium 

 warm fawn-buff, and the underparts excepting the chin and upper 

 throat, warm rusty fawn. In the winter the under parts of the adult are 

 much more fulvous in tinge. 



Hob. Central and southern Europe, as far north, though 

 rarely, as Great Britain, and southern Sweden ; south to North 

 Africa and east to Palestine, Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan, 

 and Afghanistan, wintering in Africa south to the Transvaal. 



Frequents damp marshy localities and dense reed-beds, 

 where it creeps about amongst the aquatic herbage with ease 



