92 SAVI’S WARBLER. 
where the bird used to arrive about the middle of April, and at its 
first coming was not shy. There is some evidence that this species 
was noticed in May 1897 in the Humber District (Cordeaux), as 
well as near Olney, Bucks. 
In Holland, Savi’s Warbler has become rarer of late years, owing 
to drainage; so that at the present time it appears to be very local, 
and almost restricted to the reed-beds of the Maas district. It is 
also found in summer in similar localities in the Camargue, at the 
mouth of the Rhone; in some parts of Andalucia in Spain; the 
swamps of Massaciuccoli in Tuscany ; Austria-Hungary ; the Balkan 
States; Southern Russia as far as the Caspian; and Western 
Turkestan. It has been obtained in Cyprus, and once in Palestine ; 
while it appears to pass the winter in Egypt, where Capt. Shelley 
found it tolerably abundant and generally distributed, frequenting 
the most luxuriant growth in the cornfields, as well as the reedy 
marshes. Canon Tristram observed it in the oases of the Sahara 
as far south as 32° N. lat.; while northward, in Algeria, Mr. Salvin 
met with it breeding in the marshes of Zana ; and it has occurred 
in Morocco. In the islands of the Mediterranean it appears to be 
rare, even on migration. 
The deep cup-shaped nest, placed in sedges and reed-beds, or in 
tufts of spiky rushes which flourish in wet ground, is composed 
of interwoven sedge-blades, and may be compared with that of a 
Crake in miniature. The 4-6 eggs are white or pale buff in 
ground-colour, thickly freckled, and generally girdled, with ashy- 
brown and violet-grey spots: measurements °78 by ‘57 in. In 
Andalucia nesting begins early in May, but in Galizia and Holland 
not until the end of that month; both sexes incubating. Count 
Wodzicki says that in the breeding-season the male is excitable and 
quarrelsome, displaying also much curiosity on the appearance of 
an intruder; he sings all day in calm clear weather, but seldom at 
night, and generally at the top of some commanding reed. From its 
monotonous note this Warbler was formerly known to our fen-men 
by the names of ‘red craking reed-wren ’ and ‘reel-bird’; while in 
Holland it is called Sworr and in Germany Schirrvogel. The call- 
note is a short 4x7. The food consists of insects and their larvee. 
In the adult the upper parts are reddish-brown ; the fan-shaped tail 
(of 12 broad feathers) shows in certain lights some faint transverse 
bars ; throat and centre of abdomen white ; upper breast, flanks, and 
under tail-coverts buff ; bill brown above, paler below ; legs and feet 
pale brown. Length 5:7 in.; wing to the tip of the 2nd and longest 
primary 2°6 in. The young are slightly paler on the under parts. 
