568 



driis saturatioribus : rostro fusco-corneo, ad basin flavicante : pedibus schistaceo-brunneis : remige 

 secundo quartuni sequante vel breviore. 



2 ad. mari similis scd paullo minor. 



Adult Male (Piedmont, 10th May) . Upper parts uniform pale brown with a rufous tinge ; a line above the 

 eye pale yellowish buff; quills and tail dark hair-brown edged with the same tinge of rufous brown as 

 the back; underparts pale buff, darkest on the flanks; bill dark horn-colour, yellowish at the base; 

 iris dark brown; legs slaty brown, soles yellowish. Total length about 5-5 inches, culmen 06, wing 

 255, tail 205, tarsus 09, second quill equal to or rather shorter than the fourth. 



Adult Female. Resembles the male ; but is a trifle less in size. 



The Reed-Warbler inhabits Europe as far north as Southern Scandinavia, being met with also 

 during winter in Africa, and ranging into Asia as far east as Turkestan. In Great Britain it is 

 not so generally distributed as the Sedge- Warbler, and is more numerous on the east than on the 

 west side of our island. It is a summer visitant, arriving late in April and leaving us again for 

 the south in September. Professor Newton says (Yarr. Brit. B. ed. 4, i. p. 370) that "it seems 

 not to breed in Devon or Cornwall ; in the last county, indeed, it is only known with certainty to 

 have occurred as a straggler, and that but once, in the autumn of 1849, when several were taken 

 in Scilly. According to the latest information collected and kindly furnished by Mr. More, it is 

 doubtful whether the Reed- Warbler regularly extends further to the north-west than Stafford- 

 shire or Derbyshire, though it reaches Scarborough on the east." It is common in the fen- 

 districts of Norfolk, but less numerous than the Sedge- Warbler, and far more local in its habits. 

 Mr. Cordeaux, however, says (B. Dumber Distr. p. 32), in the Humber district it is " extremely 

 rare ; I have only once seen it in this parish, and that in the autumn. Mr. Alington has never 

 met with it in the neighbourhood of Croxby Lake, on the North Wolds ; nor have I, although 

 1 yearly searched for it in many very likely localities for its occurrence in this neighbourhood. I 

 have found it in the south of the county, near Boston, where it nests. It also nests annually, as 

 Mr. Adrian informs me, near Lincoln." In Scotland it is extremely rare ; and Mr. Robert Gray 

 only introduces it in his work on the birds of the west of Scotland on the authority of Dr. Turn- 

 bull, who states that it occurs in East Lothian, and has been seen in the neighbourhood of 

 Bathgate, in Mid Lothian, where it breeds; and Professor Newton says that Mr. Hepburn found 

 it breeding in East Lothian, and Mr. Weir in West Lothian. In Ireland it is extremely rare. 

 Mr. Thompson writes that he was informed by Mr. Templeton that he once saw it near Belfast, 

 and by Mr. Montgomery that he shot a male specimen at Raheny, near Dublin, on the 21st of 

 December, 1843. 



It does not occur in Norway, but is found in Southern Sweden. Sundevall says that it has 

 been met with in the large tracts covered with aquatic vegetation at Gothenburg, and at 

 Land>krona, Nasbyholm, and several places in Southern and Western Skane, and possibly it is 

 found elsewhere in Sweden, but has been overlooked. It is not found in Finland; but it is by 

 no means very rare, though local, in Russia. Mr. Sabanaeff informs me that it is common only 

 in some portions of the Moscow and Jaroslaf Governments, and has been observed in the south- 

 eastern portion of the Vologda Government. According to Eversmann and Bogdanoff it is very 



