an eyebrow of sulphur yellow, and a sulphur-yellow breast 
and throat. Since he is rarely to be found, save in woods 
of beech and oak, he will, on this account, the more easily 
be distinguished from his cousin, the chiff-chaff and the 
willow-warbler. This fact, again, can be taken into account 
when the identity of one or other of these two is in question. 
The warblers are essentially birds of the countryside— 
they cannot abide the busy haunts of men, who seem unable 
to settle anywhere without setting up hideous tramways 
and ugly buildings. Kindly Nature is crowded out. The 
garden, hedgerow, and shady woods are the chosen haunts 
of the warblers, though some prefer the reed-grown stream, 
or the thickets round quiet pools. The reed and the sedge- 
warbler will be found here, but by no means easily so, for 
after the manner of their tribe they love seclusion. To find 
the reed-warbler you must go to reed-beds, or to osier-beds, 
and there watch for a little bird, chestnut-brown above, and 
white below. But for this constantly babbling chatter— 
“churra, churra, churra’’—you would never, probably, find 
him. Guided, however, by his song, you may succeed in 
finding him nimbly climbing up and down the reed stems. 
Very like him is the rarer marsh-warbler: but, for your 
guidance, note that the marsh-warbler has a really melodious 
song, and is even more likely to be found in swampy thickets 
of meadow-sweet than the reed-beds. The sedge-warbler, 
218 
