36 OXFOED : SPRING AND SUMMEE. 



not sweet, but much less harsh and declamatory than those of 

 his cousin. I have listened to him for half-an-hour together 

 among the bushes that border the reed-bed, and have fancied 

 that his warble suits well with the gentle flow of the water, and 

 the low hum of the insects around me. He will sit for a long 

 time singing on the same twig, while his partner is on her nest 

 in the reeds below; but the Sedge-warbler, in this and other 

 respects like a fidgety and iU-trained child, is never in one 

 place, or in the same vein of song, for more than a minute 

 at a time. 



It is amusing to stand and listen to the two voices going 

 on at the same time ; the Sedge-bird rattling along in a state 

 of the intensest excitement, pitching up his voice into a series 

 of loud squeaks, and then dropping it into a long-drawn grating 

 noise, like the winding-up of an old-fashioned watch, while the 

 Eeed-warbler, unaffected by all this volubility, takes his own 

 line in a continued prattle of gentle content and self-sufficiency. 



These eight birds then, are the warblers which at present 

 visit Oxford. Longer walks and careful observation may no 

 doubt bring us across at least two others, the Wood-warbler 

 and the Grasshopper- warbler : the nest of the Wood- warbler has 

 been found within three miles. Another bird too which is 

 often called a warbler has of late become very common both 

 in and about Oxford — the Eedstart. Four or five years ago 

 they were getting quite rare ; but this year (1885) the flicker of 

 the red tail is to be seen all along the Cherwell, in the Broad 

 Walk, where they build in holes of the elms, in Port Meadow, 

 where I have heard the gentle warbling song from the 



