97 



THE SEDGE-WARBLER. 

 AcToceplialus phragmitis (Bechst.) 



The first Sedge- Warblers appear to have been noticed at 

 Dungeness on the 3rd o£ April, but it was not till ten 

 days later that they were seen elsewhere. Between the 

 13th and 22nd they were evidently straggling in slowly and 

 in small numbers, but with the exception of one record in 

 Durham on the 22nd, these birds confined themselves to the 

 south and east of England. 



On the 24fch the first large immigration occurred in 

 Hampshire, some of the birds apparently passing straight 

 to the north, as we find stragglers recorded from Cheshire, 

 Worcester, and Yorkshire on the same day. On the 

 following day an increase was noted in Norfolk, and by the 

 27th it had reached Yorkshire. 



The second large immigration began on the 2nd of May ; 

 it was first noticed in Devon and Somerset, and on the 4th 

 and 5th large numbers arrived in Hampshire, leading on the 

 following days to a gradual increase in Oxford, Cardigan, 

 Cheshire, and Lancashire, and by the 8th the main body 

 of this immigration had reached Cheshire. While these 

 birds were proceeding up the west, an increase occurred in 

 Norfolk on the 5th (the day after they had arrived on the 

 Hampshire coast), and a few were recorded in Mid-Kent and 

 Yorkshire on the (Jth. It would thus appear that after their 

 arrival on the coast these birds proceeded mainly up the 

 west of England, passing through Cheshire on the 8th, while 

 a few struck east through Buckingham and Berkshire to 

 Norfolk. What became of these birds was doubtful, but 

 apparently they either passed out of the country, or formed 

 the breeding-stock of Norfolk. 



