A FEW WORDS ON FEN-LAND. 217 



unlike that of the Grasshopper-Warbler, or Reeler, still quite distinct) ; and 

 this bird they called indifferently the ' Brown,' ' Red,' or ' Night-Reeler.' " 

 Harvey at last got these birds and eggs. They will never more be obtained 

 now. 



The Editor states that Mr. Bond has the merit of pointing out the 

 species as British. 



In Huntingdonshire, at Wood Walton, in 1849, a nest and eggs w^ere 

 taken {cf. Yarrell, 4th edit. p. 392); and it lived at Whittlesea Mere, 

 whence an adult bird is figured in Mr. Dresser's ' Birds of Europe,' 

 part xxxviii. (April 1875). I need not, however, say that these localities 

 will never see the species again. 



A few additional places in other counties are mentioned in the above- 

 quoted works ; but this was one of our rarest fen-birds, and its extinction, 

 with its curious nest, made of one material only, must be now, and ever will 

 be, to British ornithologists for generations to come, a source of the deepest 

 and most bitter regret. Count Wodzicki's account of its habits, in the 

 ' Journal fiir Ornithologie,' is so interesting that I have had his remarks 

 translated, and they follow this article. 



Professor Newton has provided me with a few observations, as a 

 supplement to the chapter on Savi's Warbler in the 4th edition of Yarrell : — 



"The pair of birds obtained by Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Saffron Walden 

 (p. 391), must have been killed in 1840 (see 'Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History,' p. 525). 



" Mr. Bond had, in all, two nests and six birds. Of the latter, two are 

 now in his collection ; one he gave to Mr. Henry Doubleday, who afterwards 

 parted with it, one to Capt. Johnson, of Walton House, near Carlisle, one to 

 Mr. Charles Thurnall, from whom it has passed to Mr. Newcome, and the 

 sixth to Mr. Ingall, of the Bank of England, whose collection was subsequently 

 sold at Mr. Stevens's auction-rooms, when the specimen was not there. 



2i 2 



