370 BRITISH BIRDS. 



is a double choh; and the alarm-note at the nest sounds \\\.ehar-r. Like 

 all its congenerSj it is principally an insectivorous bird^ and is occasionally 

 seen to fly after an insect on the wing. In autumn there seems to be no 

 doubt that it occasionally eats soft fruits^ such as currants and elder-berries. 

 I have listened to the lively song of this charming bird for hours vphilst 

 boating on the broads of Norfolk and on the extensive fish-ponds where 

 the old monks used to breed their carp in the days vphen ray friend 

 Oberamtmann Nehrkorn's house was a Cistercian monastery. For an 

 unusually graphic account of the habits of the Reed- Warbler in the 

 former locality I must refer the reader to Stevenson's ' Birds of Norfolk.' 



This bird sometimes breeds in bushes, but generally in reeds. In 1881 

 I made two excursions from London in order to observe them in both 

 these situations. 



On the 3rd of June Mr. Bidwell and I paid a visit to one of the chief 

 breeding-places of the Reed-Warblers on the banks of the Thames, about 

 twenty miles from the city. We kept close to the bank, which was lined 

 with willows from six to twenty feet high, the lower branches dipping into 

 the water. We passed some willows which had been lopped down into the 

 dimensions of an ordinary hedge without hearing the notes of the birds of 

 which we were in search ; but as soon as we reached the taller and wider 

 trees, our appearance seemed to be the signal for intermittent snatches of 

 a rapid song which sounded both angry and defiant, and which became 

 almost continuous when the boat-hook gripped a branch of a tree close to 

 the one in which the Reed- Warbler was protesting against our invasion of 

 his breeding-grounds. 



We very soon discovered a nest. It was about nine feet above the water, 

 and interwoven between three slender willow-twigs, which stretched out 

 at an angle of about 45° from the perpendicular. It was a very compact 

 structure, more than twice as high as it was wide, the bottom two thirds 

 being only foundation. The nest inside was about as deep as it was wide, 

 and quite horizontal. The materials were principally very fine roots, a 

 piece or two of worsted, a feather, a little moss, and some dry grass. The 

 lining was entirely fine roots. There were five eggs in the nest, slightly 

 incubated. We afterwards found four more nests, containing respectively 

 four, four, three, and two eggs, besides several old nests and one or two 

 not quite finished. They were all overhanging the water, and all in the 

 tall willows ; but the distance of the nest from the water varied from six to 

 twelve feet. One old nest was only three feet above the water. At one of 

 the nests, the eggs in which were more incubated than the others, the female 

 remained whilst we were at the nest, flying backwards and forwards, and 

 occasionally perching very near us. Her song seemed to be by no means 

 so loud or continuous as that of her mate, and was little more than a 

 chatter. The materials of all the nests were nearly the same ; but one 



