OPEN NESTS 191 



moss, and dead leaves, lined with finer grass stalks, 

 and placed on or near the ground amongst brambles 

 or rank vegetation. Another spepies, Savi's Warbler 

 (L. luscinioides), constructs a cup-shaped nest made 

 of flat ribbon-like leaves of sedges, the narrowest 

 ones being reserved for the lining, and placing it 

 among the aquatic vegetation of its haunts. The 

 Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus) introduce us to another 

 type of architecture, many of these species suspending 

 their open nests from the stems of reeds, often such 

 that are growing in water. The bird selects three 

 or four stems suitably situated for the purpose, and 

 round them weaves a deep well-made nest formed of 

 dry grass, roots, and the flat leaves of reeds, lined 

 with finer root-fibres, hair, and occasionally a few 

 feathers, a little moss or bits of wool and vegetable 

 down. One of these birds is a fairly common if local 

 visitor to England and Wales, the Reed Warbler (A . 

 arundinaceus).'^ Then we may instance the Icterine 

 or Tree Warblers (Hypolais). These birds build very 

 beautiful little nests, placing them in forking branches 

 of low trees. That of the Icterine Warbler {H. icterina), 

 for instance, is almost as elaborately made as that 

 of the Chaffinch, but somewhat smaller and a trifle 

 deeper. Externally, it is made of dry grass and moss, 

 interwoven with strips of bark and felted together with 



' The Grass Warblers Prinia (an aberrant group) build cup-shaped 

 nests slung between the stems of reeds near water, made of grasses, 

 flowering aquatic weeds, and lined with finer grasses. 



