52 BIRDS BROWN ABOVE AND WHITE BELOW. 



ends of the twigs for small life, and may also be seen 

 threading the thickets and hedge-bottoms with the 

 creeping motions of a Wren. 



SEDGE-WAEBLER— 5 inches; flat-browed; upper parts 

 brown, heavily streaked with dark brown ; conspicuous 

 white eyebrow. Although this bird also has a sus- 

 tained, gabbling song, it is generally heard beside water. 



REED-WARBLER— 5 inches ; upper parts plain ruddy- 

 brown, therefore no ashy head ; under parts white, 

 but huffish. Although this bird uses a continuous 

 prattling song somewhat similar to that of the White- 

 throat, the bird itself is a denizen of reed and osier beds, 



LESSER WHITETHROAT— 5i inches ; upper parts gray ; 

 bill blackish ; legs slate. Song, opening with a few sub- 

 dued notes, bursts out in a high-pitched note, exactly 

 repeated several times. This song is generally delivered 

 from high trees. 



LESSER WHITETHROAT.— Form, like Common 

 Whitethroat (plate 25). Length, 5^ inches. Upper 

 parts brownish-gray ; ■wing and tail feathers brown 

 with lighter margins, the outer feathers of the tail 

 partly white ; under parts white ; bill blackish ; legs 

 slate ; iris white. Summer migrant. 



Eggs. — 5-6, creamy- white, blotched and spotted 

 with gray and yellowish-brown, and with some 

 smaller markings of a darker brown; '65 x '5 inch 

 (plate 124). 



Nest. — Shallow, made of dry grass, lined with hair, 

 and placed in hedges and in low bushes and brambles. 



Distribution. — Principally in the southern counties 

 of England, but not in Cornwall ; rarer from the 

 Midlands to south Scotland ; Brecon ; not in Ireland. 



