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CASSELLS BOOK OK BIRDS. 



the hope of outdoing its numerous rivals in the favour of some attractive female. Should any one of 

 the feathered competitors venture to intrude upon the same branch as the energetic singer he is at 

 once driven with much violence from the spot, to prevent a repetition of the offence. During the 

 whole time that the female broods the male bird exhibits the same anxious desire to please her, and 

 is often heard gaily carolling from dawn of day till far into the night. "The song," says Mudie, "is 

 hurried but varied, not so much in the single stave as in its having several of them, which would lead 

 one to imagine that there were several birds. It sings in the throat, and gives a sort of guttural twist 



the sedge warbler (Calomodus phragmilis). 



to all it utters." At times, in his excitement, he rises rapidly into the air, and, after hovering for a 

 few moments with wings raised high above the body, slowly descends or drops, like a stone, to the 

 spot whence he ascended. At this period of the year, not only the manner of flight, but the whole 

 nature of the male bird seems changed, and he exhibits a fearlessness that contrasts strangely with 

 his usual cautious and timid demeanour. Like other members of this family, the Sedge Warbler 

 subsists principally upon insects, and occasionally devours various kinds of berries. The nest, which 

 is placed amongst clumps of sedge, grass, or rushes, on marshy ground, at not more than a foot and a 

 half from its surface, is firmly suspended to the surrounding stalks, and formed of hay, stubble, roots, 

 and green moss, woven thickly and firmly together, and lined with horsehair, feathers, and delicate 

 blades of grass. The eggs, from four to six in number, are of a dirty white, more or less shaded with 



