RIVER WARBLER. 35 



The River Warbler, which is one of the finest species in the 

 family, is found principally in Europe on the shores of the Danube. 

 It has also been found, but isolated and rarely, in Saxony, Siberia, 

 Lithuania, and France. Salvadori says its occurrence in Italy is very 

 doubtful. Wright records its capture in Malta. It also occurs in 

 Hungary and Egypt. Its home is in moist meadows and swampy 

 places, where reeds, high grasses, and water-plants afford it conceal- 

 ment. It is migratory, appearing in its breeding places on the banks 

 of the Danube in May, and disappears the end of August. Of its 

 habits, Count Miihle says, — 



"By day it keeps in the deepest concealment, and flies away when 

 disturbed with the greatest stillness and velocity, or it hastens from 

 one bough to another, close over the ground. In early morning, 

 however, in the still gloomy twilight, it will remain quite unconcerned, 

 singing on an open branch or twig, and even by day it may some- 

 times be heard during thunder-storms. While singing, it likes to sit 

 upon a slanting branch, swells out its throat, lets its wings droop 

 somewhat, and with a measured movement sings its remarkable song 

 in quick railroad time, repeated quite twenty times in a breath. This 

 song resembles the chirping of grasshoppers. Upon the very obscure 

 history of its propagation some light has been thrown by Thienemann 

 and Heckel. Its breeding-places are the closely-wooded parts of the 

 banks of the Danube. The nest is always in thick bushes, which 

 have growing amongst them high grasses and reeds. It is formed of 

 withered leaves, mostly of grass, and dry straws, thickly woven over 

 with the young shoots of grasses, so as to conceal it completely from 

 observation. The inside of the nest is cup-shaped, and neatly and 

 solidly lined with small soft grass stems, without any mixture of other 

 materials. The four eggs which Heckel found in one such nest, 

 (Naumannia, p. IT, 1853,) have a conspicuous greyish white ground, 

 with reddish brown spots, some light, others dark, and slight stains 

 scattered over." 



Brehm, in Biideker's work upon European eggs, gives a still later 

 account of its nidification, which I will quote entire, as everything 

 about this bird is interesting to the naturalist: — 



"It dwells, but not numerously, in the high-lying meadows of the 

 Elbe, by Magdebourg and Breslau, and it is plentiful on the shores 

 of the Don, the Bug, and many rivers in Gallicia. It lives in the 

 woods and thick bushes on the banks of rivers. It breeds, according 

 to Count Wodyecki, in Gallicia, and to others in Moldavia, not far 

 from Prague, and on the Elbe. Herr Zelcbor shot a female with an 



