BIRDS 



in his Birds of Ra'inham (p. 25), but it is a 

 reed-warbler and fails to correspond with 

 typical examples of A. palustr'is with which I 

 have compared the example.] 



27. Great Reed-Warbler. Acrocephalus tur- 



do'tdes (Meyer) 

 This bird is an extremely rare visitor ; only 

 two specimens have been obtained in Kent. 

 On 4 May 1853 ^" individual was shot by the 

 side of a pond near Sittingbourne by Mr. G. 

 Thomas of that place. The other was ob- 

 tained in the Wingham marshes on 14 Sep- 

 tember 1 88 1, by Mr. Oxenden Hammond, 

 who writes of the occurrence as follows : 

 'While snipe shooting, on September 14th, I 

 came across a warbler of some kind, which I 

 failed to identify satisfactorily. I had marked 

 a snipe down, as I believed, in a water-cress 

 covered stream, which flowed between an 

 alder bed on one bank and a bank of very 

 high reeds on the other. I had not gone far 

 up the windings of this channel, when the 

 bird in question rose out of the coarse herbage 

 and instantly entered the reed-bed opposite. 

 I was struck by its appearance and sent my 

 retriever into the reeds. The bird moved 

 through the reeds at once before the dog, 

 and my keeper seeing it, forced it out by a 

 thrust or two of my marsh-jumping pole. It 

 flew along the watercourse very low, just 

 topping the cresses with a weak fluttering 

 flight, and some dust shot then struck it down. 

 I found no difficulty in identifying the bird 

 as the great reed warbler.' 



28. Sedge- Warbler. Acrocephalus phragmitis 



(Bechstein) 

 In Kent the sedge-warbler arrives at the 

 end of April and frequents ditches which are 

 overrun with brambles and places where there 

 is rough herbage. The vicinity of water is 

 not essential to this bird, the nest being often 

 found on the ground in thick grass by the 

 roadside. During the migration in September 

 small parties may be seen in the dykes of our 

 marsh-land near the sea. 



29. Aquatic Warbler. Acrocephalus aquaticus 



(J. F. Gmelin) 

 Has occurred once in the county, an 

 example being obtained near Dover by the 

 late Mr. C. Gordon. The specimen remained 

 in Dr. Plomley's collection in the museum of 

 that town for some time unidentified till 

 February 1871, when Mr. J. H. Gurney 

 found it to be a genuine example of this 

 rare warbler. In Borrer's Birds of Sussex 

 there is a fine coloured plate of the aquatic 

 warbler by Mr. Keulemans. 



30. Grasshopper-Warbler. Locustella navia 



(Boddaert) 

 This warbler, locally known as 'cricket- 

 bird,' comes to us near the end of April, 

 taking up its abode in thickets, close as a rule 

 to running water where there is plenty of 

 ' bottom ' in the form of coarse grass. It is 

 by no means common and of very local dis- 

 tribution. Its retiring and skulking habits 

 make observation difficult, the bird being 

 more often heard than seen, its peculiar scis- 

 sor-grinding song breaking the silence of 

 evening. According to Mr. Walter Prentis 

 this bird, formerly plentiful, has disappeared 

 from the Rainham district. In his collec- 

 tion there is a peculiar variety obtained on 5 

 June 1869; back greenish-brown with darker 

 markings, breast greenish-yellow without spots. 

 In the Cranbrook neighbourhood a few pairs 

 breed annually in the woods around Sissing- 

 hurst. It is found near Maidstone, a nest 

 and two eggs with the female bird being 

 in the museum of that town, and taken near 

 HoUingbourne in May 1882. Nests have 

 also been found near Ashford, while in the 

 Stourmouth district the bird is scarce (Dowker). 

 About Dover it breeds sparingly (Gray), and 

 it has also been observed at Pembury near 

 Tunbridge Wells {Zool. 1857, p. 5685). 



3 1 . Hedge-Sparrow. Accentor nodularis (Linn.) 

 A well distributed resident in the county, 



its numbers remaining constant throughout 

 the year. Although one of the earliest of 

 British breeding birds it is often among the 

 latest. In the Cranbrook neighbourhood a 

 brood was still in the nest on 23 August 

 1890. 



32. Dipper. Cinclus aquaticus, Bechstein. 

 The dipper or water-ouzel is a rare bird in 



Kent, where only a few individuals on mi- 

 gration have been obtained. The county is 

 unsuitable to the habits of this species, as shal- 

 low rivers studded with stones and running 

 streams are not to be found in Kent, so the 

 dipper as a resident is absent. I have the 

 following records : Two in the Dover 

 Museum, one being in the Plomley collec- 

 tion, and therefore probably obtained in the 

 neighbourhood of Lydd ; the other shot on 

 the river at Dover in 1870 (Charles Gordon). 

 One in the local collection of the Maidstone 

 Museum (G. Simmons). Lastly, in Decem- 

 ber 1890, a dipper was shot on the rocks at 

 Margate (J. H. Gurney, Zool. 1 89 1, p. 274). 

 To "these records I shall also place the 

 observation of one near Cranbrook. The dip- 

 per is such a remarkable looking bird that 

 it can hardly be mistaken for any other. On 



275 



