By the Riverside 



harsh and not altogether unmusical. Apart from 

 song, there are some very distinct differences be- 

 tween these birds though at first sight they bear 

 a certain resemblance to each other. The Reed 

 Warbler is pale brown above, with a tinge of chest- 

 nut on the rump ; the chin and throat are white, 

 the breast and underparts cream-coloured. The 

 Sedge Warbler appears to be a shorter and more 

 stoutly built bird, and can easily be distinguished 

 from its ally by a clearly defined, yellowish white 

 eyebrow and its streaked back, for the russet 

 brown feathers have dusky brown centres. Its 

 nest, too, is always supported, never suspended, 

 and placed in thick, coarse, climbing plants, in 

 brambles or other bushes, generally not far from the 

 ground and always in the neighbourhood of water. 

 Somewhat loosely constructed of grass and coarse 

 bents and lined with horse-hair, it contains five or 

 six eggs, which stand in no danger of being con- 

 fused with the Reed Warbler's. Their ground 

 colour is pale amber brown, mottled with darker 

 brown and often marked with a few short hair-Jike 

 black lines at the larger end. 



One more bird claims our attention before we 

 leave those East Anglian rivers the Reed 

 Bunting for though it is generally distributed 

 throughout the British Islands, breeding in all 

 suitable places, the conditions of the East of 

 England are such that it is especially common there. 

 The sluggish rivers and the fen districts, with 



