THE MARSH WARBLER NEAR TAUNTON, 337 
the upper mandible was a pale horn-colour, the lower mandible 
primrose-yellow ; inside of rictus bright yellow; eyes dark violet, 
with dark brown irides; legs pale flesh-colour, tinged with brown; 
soles of feet extremely bright primrose-yellow (this singular 
characteristic pertains also to the Reed Warbler); claws pale 
flesh-colour, tinged beneath with yellow. 
Mr. Dresser’s test of the comparative length of the primaries 
held good, the second primary being found conspicuously longer 
than the fourth. I do not think much of this mark of distinction, 
for on looking at two fine adults of what I have always con- 
sidered the Reed Warbler,—one shot near Cambridge, the other 
taken at the spring migration near Brighton,—I find that in 
both the second primary is much longer than the fourth. It is 
just possible that both these birds may be A. palustris, for they 
certainly have backs more of an olive-brown than of a russet- 
brown; and this is Mr. Howard Saunders’ differentiation of the 
two species. In general coloration the Marsh Warbler and the 
Reed Warbler are, as I have said, almost identical, and perhaps 
the shades of colour on the upper parts furnish the only point 
of distinction between them, and even these shades approach one 
another very closely as the skins dry and the general tone of 
colour fades and approximates to what a witty friend of Mr. 
Dresser well termed “ museum colour.” 
_I may add to this account the statement of Coates, that during 
his experience as a bird-catcher in the environs of Taunton, 
he has at different times taken more than a dozen nests similar 
to those described above, and with eggs in them of the same 
character. Mr. Marshall, however, thinks that he can have taken 
none during the last thirteen years, or they would have been 
brought to him, and possibly this statement of the birdcatcher 
may be an exaggeration. 
Since writing the above, Mr. Howard Saunders has kindly lent 
me a beautiful skin of a male A. palustris, labelled “ Astrachan,” 
to compare with my Taunton bird; and although this specimen is 
in perfect plumage, and mine is rather ragged from moult having 
set in, after placing the two side by side, I can only detect a 
perfect resemblance. The olive tints of the back are the same, 
and so are the white under parts, on which a delicate primrose 
tinge is still more or less apparent; and in both birds the second 
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