576 



call-notes of the Swallow, some of the Titmice, and even those of the Sparrows. It sings from 

 late in April or early in May to late in July, not only from morning to night but often all 

 night through, and in this respect replaces in the marshes the queen of the grove songsters, 

 the Nightingale. When singing during the daytime it rarely remains quiet, but hops about in 

 search of food, or chases its allies amongst the foliage, though in the early morning it may often 

 be seen seated in some open situation uttering its rich and varied song. 



It feeds on all sorts of small insects, which it picks off the foliage or boughs, and sometimes 

 catches on the wing ; and Naumann says that in the autumn it not unfrequently eats currants 

 and elderberries. 



Its nest is never built over the water, and not even on marshy ground, but is placed either 

 on dry or nearly dry ground, though often on the edge of water, and can always be approached 

 dry-shod, often amongst nettles or rushes, and not unfrequently at some distance from water. 

 It is sometimes placed in a bush, often amongst nettles, or in a tangled thicket of brushwood 

 and herbage, and seldom below from one to three feet above the ground. It resembles the nest 

 of the aquatic Warblers, most so that of the Grasshopper Warbler, but is more closely built, 

 and of darker-coloured materials. It is usually closely constructed of dried stems and leaves of 

 grasses intermixed with fibres of the nettle, and interwoven with insect-webs, and lined with fine 

 bents and horsehairs. 



I possess two very perfect nests of this bird from Holland, obtained there by my artist, 

 M r. J. G. Keulemans ; and one from Silesia has been lent to me by Dr. Crowfoot. All these 

 nests are constructed of dried grass-bents and leaves, neatly shaped, resembling in shape the nest 

 ■ i Acrocephalua streperus; and, with the exception of the one from Silesia, they are lined with 

 fine bents and horsehair. The nest from Silesia is lined with bents only, no horsehair whatever 

 being intermixed with the lining material. 



Its eggs, usually from four to five, and more seldom six in number, though nearest in 

 appearance to those of the Reed- Warbler, differ very appreciably from these. They are French 

 white, occasionally with a very faint greenish tinge, and are somewhat sparingly marked with 

 small purplish grey shell-spots, and larger, rather more clearly defined, dark brown or purplish 

 brown shell-markings, these latter being more profuse towards the larger end; one or two in my 

 collection are marked only on the larger end, there being merely a dark dot or two on the other 

 part of the egg. In size they average about -§ § by |-^ inch. 



Few species have been so much confused in collections as the present one and Acrocephalus 

 streperus; for, although they differ so strikingly in song, habits, and especially in their eggs, and 

 when fresh-killed are by no means difficult to discriminate (for the present species is much more 

 olivaceous in tinge of colour above, and whiter below; besides, its legs are pale flesh-brown, 

 whereas A. streperus has slaty brown darker legs, has the upper parts more rufous brown or 

 rusty yellow, and the underparts tinged with yellowish buff), yet dried skins gradually fade into 

 what a worthy friend of mine calls museum-colour, and the difference in coloration in plumage 

 becomes scarcely apparent, and the legs also fade, so that even the best authorities have been 

 sometimes at fault in separating them. The best and most reliable characteristic, however, 

 appears to be that mentioned by Degland, viz. the relative length of the primaries; and 

 Mr. Seebohm, who has examined a very large series of specimens, assures me that he has 



