THE MARSH WARBLER: WHEN AND WHERE TO 
LOOK FOR IT. 
All about a little known British bird. 
By W. WarpbE Fowuer, M.A., Author of “A Year with the Birds.” 
HIS delightful little bird, which was first discovered in England in 1861, is now 
known to breed regularly in several of our western counties, and has also been 
found in the fen country. Whether it is in reality still more widely distributed is a 
question which we cannot at present answer; but it is quite possible that it escapes 
the vigilance even of good field ornithologists, owing to the lateness of its arrival in 
this country and the rather secluded nature of its haunts. On the other hand, my 
own experience rather leads me to believe that it is still very sparsely distributed and 
not imereasing in numbers in any appreciable degree. I myself, and friends who know 
the bird well, have searched diligently and failed to find it in many places where we 
might well hope to do so, and in my own neighbourhood I have never yet discovered 
it except in the one spot where for ten consecutive years it has allowed me to study 
its habits. It may be of use to those who are in search of it if I summarise my 
own experience of its ways in this country, more particularly as regards the time and 
place. of its nesting. 
In the first place, it is little or no good to look for this bird in its breeding 
haunts before the end of May—a time when we have ceased to listen for the voices 
of new arrivals. The marsh warbler is quite the latest of our summer migrants: in 
ten years I have only once been able to detect it before June Ist—once on May 30th 
and this year on May 31st. On each of these occasions I feel sure that it had only 
just arrived; for, like the nightingale, it does not break at once into full song, but 
will make its presence known only by an occasional note, which might easily be 
mistaken by the inexperienced for that of the linnet or whitethroat. It is restless for 
a day or two, and seems to be roving about in the process of identifying old haunts, 
too busy to sing vigorously until those haunts have again become familiar. Or it may 
be that some unwelcome change has been wrought there during the winter—willows 
cut down, meadow-sweet and willow-herb not yet grown up as the bird remembers them ; 
and to these changes it has to accustom itself, or to decide whether it may not be 
‘better to look for other quarters. However this may be, it is certain that the plants 
in which this bird delights to hang its nest are rarely ready for such use until June 
is well advanced, and it is useless to expect it much before that time. My records 
show that I have never found the nest begun before June 14th, and that I have never 
known an egg laid until June 18th; the hen is sitting on her full number of eggs as 
