46 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
as my figure. When I received this nest I was fairly 
puzzled, for it answered tolerably well to the description of 
that of the Great Reed Warbler, the eggs to some of those of 
the Marsh Warbler, the position of the nest to that which I 
then knew to be occasionally adopted by the Reed Warbler; 
I therefore wrote to Mr. Salter asking him to try and dis- 
cover something further respecting it. On the 27th June 
he wrote to me from Downton as follows :—‘ Dear Sir, I 
will forward, per parcels post, to you, another nest like the 
one you have. I found it last Saturday with three young 
birds and one egg. I went again to-day and found the 
young ones just ready to fly. I managed to shoot one 
of the old ones with a catapult, but could not manage 
to get the other although I waited about three hours. 
The nest was overhanging the water about fifty yards 
from where I got the other.” 
The egg contained in the second nest (which was 
formed like that previously received) was perfectly normal, 
and the birds, upon comparison with a series of skins, 
proved to be quite typical specimens of the ordinary Reed 
Warbler, showing how careful we ought to be in attempting 
to identify nests or eggs without seeing the birds, although, 
of course, puzzles of this kind do not trouble the collector 
very frequently. 
“The Reed Warbler,” says Mr. Harting (‘ Zoologist,’ 
1867) ‘‘ may be distinguished from the Sedge Warbler by 
its being longer and slimmer, and by the uniform colour of 
the head. In the Sedge Warbler the most conspicuous 
characters are a white line over the eye, a darker back, 
and dark centre to wing feathers, with lighter margins. 
In the Reed Warbler the feathers are more uniform in 
colour. The two species differ also in their note and 
flight.” 
