364 BRITISH BIRDS. 



saw a bird run up the reeds, and occasionally flutter along over their tops 

 with hurried flight and outspread depressed tail, as if ready at any moment 

 to alight. The water was above my knees, and the reeds much above my 

 head and very densely planted ; but I soon found a nest containing four 

 eggs. There is no evidence of two broods having been reared in one 

 season ; but Mr. Sclater and I took a nest with fresh eggs on the 29th of 

 June, at Riddagshausen, which may have belonged to a pair whose first 

 nest had been taken. 



The song of the Great Reed-Warbler is something like that of the Sedge- 

 Warbler, but shorter, louder, and harsher. It consists for the most part 

 of variations on the few notes which I wrote down on the spot as kar-r-a, 

 kar-r-a, kee, kee, interrupted with what appears to be the alarm-note, a 

 root of kr-r-kr-r, as loud and as harsh as the croaking of a frog, but which 

 nevertheless sounds like music in the ears of a British ornithologist, who 

 listens to it as the note of a rare bird. Like most of its allies, this bird 

 sings from early morning to late at night. 



Its food is principally insects, which it procures on the reeds — small 

 beetles, flies, and various kinds of larva. It is said occasionally to catch an 

 insect on the wing, and sometimes to pick them up from the muddy banks 

 of the river or lake. In autumn, like most other insectivorous birds, it 

 varies its diet with some of the softer wild fruits, especially elder-berries. 



I am not aware of any reliable instance of this bird's breeding other- 

 wise than in reeds. The nest is usually placed in the middle of the reed- 

 bed, about halfway between the top of the reeds and the surface of the 

 water. Three, four, and sometimes five reeds are deftly woven into the 

 outside of the nest, which is a large compact structure, composed almost 

 entirely of the dead grass-like leaflets of the reed interwoven with a few 

 roots, and lined with the dead flowers of the reed and a few slender grass- 

 stalks. The nest is deep and cup-shaped, having an inside diameter of 

 about two inches and a half, and being of about the same depth. Outside 

 it measures about five inches in height, with an outside diameter of four 

 inches. Occasionally the leaves of water-plants are interwoven in the 

 nest, and sometimes moss, wool, a feather or two, and downy seeds (such 

 as those of the clematis and cotton-grass) . The number of eggs is generally 

 four or five, but frequently six. In colour they almost exactly resemble 

 those of the Marsh-Warbler, but are twice the size. The ground-colour 

 is a pale blue, sometimes approaching green, and often tinged with grey. 

 Few eggs are more boldly or richly spotted. Large blotches of olive- 

 brown or russet- brown, sometimes pale but occasionally approaching black, 

 are distributed pretty evenly over the surface, and are relieved by minute 

 spots of the same colour, and by the underlying blotches, which show pale 

 through the ground-colour. The eggs vary considerably in size ; the 



