SEDGE WARBLER. 31 



materials vary : one found in a bush was made of 

 moss and straw. It is generally placed two or three 

 feet from the ground in the bushes or long grass near 

 the water-side, but nests have also been found on the 

 ground itself. Meyer in his British Birds says, " We 

 have invariably found the nest of this species sus- 

 pended " ; Seebohm in his work of the same title says, 

 " Its nest is never suspended, but is supported by the 

 branches". Who shall decide when doctors disagree ? 

 My own experience is that out of six nests found by me 

 one day last May, four of them, all built in the coarse 

 grass by the side of a ditch in a water meadow, were 

 suspended, thre or four stalks being used as supports, 

 and the nest woven round them ; on cutting one of 

 them down I was able to easily slip the stalks through 

 without pulling the nest about at all. All these four 

 nests contained eggs ; two of them had clutches of six. 

 The other two nests I found were placed in thick 

 bramble bushes and also contained eggs ; but these 

 nests were not suspended ; they were supported on 

 the branches. All six nests were within a stone's 

 throw of one another. The eggs are four to six in 

 number. The ground colour is bluish white, but they 

 are usually so thickly mottled .and freckled over with 

 yellowish brown, that it is impossible to distinguish it. 

 Very many of them bear small hair streaks of a deep 

 blackish brown. 



The Sedge Warbler is of a russet-brown colour, its 

 underparts being a sort of dirty white. Its throat is 

 white, while the feathers on its head are very dark, 

 almost black, forming a sort of cap. It leaves us at 

 the end of September, though it has sometimes stayed 

 until the middle of October. It is considered a good 

 cage bird. 



