SEDGE-WARBLER. 355 



reality it is iu the depth of its cover many yards away. The call-note is 

 a harsh churr rapidly repeated ; and its alarm-note is a scold something 

 like that of the Whitethroat. 



The nesting-season of the Sedge-Warbler commences early in May. Its 

 nest is never suspended between the reeds like the Reed- Warbler's, but is 

 supported by the branches. The site is varied a little, according to the 

 nature of the haunts it frequents. On the broads and in marshy places 

 the bird usually selects some convenient place in the willow bushes. In 

 other haunts the nest is often placed in the thick branches of a hedge near 

 a stream ; at other times the brambles growing in wild confusion in its 

 marshy haunts, or the bushes and woodbine drooping over the water, wiU 

 be selected to hold it. Few of our British nests are so unassuming as the 

 Sedge- Warbler's. It is a small and simple little structure, not very deep, 

 made of dry grass-stems, portions of sedgy plants, sometimes lined with a few 

 hairs, sometimes with scraps of vegetable down. It is sometimes placed as 

 much as ten feet from the ground, but more frequently at a height of one 

 or two feet, and rarely on the ground itself. Writing of the nest in the 

 latter situation, Mr. Stevenson, in his ' Birds of Norfolk," states : — " I have 

 also found it in some few instances in a little hollow on the ground, but 

 so concealed amongst the surrounding moss as to be discoverable only by 

 the bird rising frightened from the spot. Again amongst the sedges, as 

 its name denotes, it seeks concealment in the treacherous nature of the 

 soil, and the nests may be there found supported, but not suspended, on 

 the dead weed and leaves of the sedge broken down.'^ The eggs of the 

 Sedge- Warbler are five or six in number, and differ considerably in colour. 

 For the sake of convenience it is perhaps best to divide them into two 

 types, very distinct from each other, but connected together by inter- 

 mediate varieties. The ground-colour of both types, when it can be seen 

 (which is not often), is bluish white. The first type is stone-colour, with 

 pale and indistinct mottlings of yellowish brown. The second type has 

 the same bufifish appearance, but the markings are very much more pro- 

 nounced and of a richer brown, in some specimens deep red-brown. 

 Almost all eggs of the Sedge- Warbler, of both types, are also marked 

 with fine scratchy streaks of rich blackish brown; on some eggs these 

 pencillings are not continuous and can scarcely be traced ; in others they 

 are almost as pronounced as the marks on a Bunting-'s egg. They vary 

 in length from '75 to '6 inch, and in breadth from -55 to '5 inch. 



The food of the Sedge-Warbler is largely composed of insects, which it 

 may often be seen catching in the air whilst fluttering over the waters and 

 reeds. It also feeds upon worms; and Naumann states that it will eat 

 elder-beri'ies. 



The Sedge-Warbler has the general colour of the upper parts russet- 

 brown, each feather having an obscure dark centre. These dark centres 



2a2 



