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is covered with dense vegetation and bushes, are its favourite localities ; but it appears equally 

 fond of thickets on the dry ground and the edges of large forests, is found in willow-thickets 

 in the pastures ; and water is not an essential element in its habitat. It arrives here (in 

 Poland) early in May, and leaves in August. Its presence is made known by its monotonous 

 song, which may be imitated by the syllable zi, zi, zi, repeated for some time, which some- 

 what resembles that of the Grasshopper- Warbler, but may be easily distinguished by a practised 

 ear. When commencing its song the male climbs obliquely along a branch until it reaches a 

 certain height above the ground, where it remains for hours at a time, seated with drooping tail ; 

 or sometimes it makes its perch on an elevated branch. At midday it sings at intervals of a few 

 minutes ; but in the early morning it sings for hours, with only a slight intermission of a few 

 moments. In places where these birds are numerous their combined song resembles more the 

 call of the cicada than the note of a bird. So soon as any one invades its home, it drops down 

 from its perch like a stone, and creeps away amongst the grass ; but if one remains quiet it 

 appears after a short time again, either on its old perch or some other bush near, and recom- 

 mences its song. When pursued it takes wing only when hard pressed, and tries to escape by 

 creeping amongst the tangled herbage. Its nest is extremely difficult to find, being in almost 

 impenetrable places. The male sings near the nest, but directly any one approaches, the female 

 slips off and creeps away along the ground, never taking wing and betraying her nest. The nest 

 is placed on the ground amongst the grass, always in places bare of bushes, and is in a hollow in 

 the ground, so that the walls of the nest itself are but little elevated above the level of the soil ; 

 the outside of the nest is a mass of dry willow-leaves, something like the outside of a Night- 

 ingale's nest ; and inside this the nest is constructed of grass bents, with finer bents and rootlets 

 in the interior lining. The total diameter is 10 centimetres, and the depth 4 centims. In 

 general character the nest resembles that of the Nightingale, but is less carefully built, the 

 outer bed of leaves is smaller, the bents in the interior of the nest are coarser and fewer in 

 number, the general structure is more carelessly put together, and it is not so deep. The eggs, 

 five in number, somewhat resemble those of the Gi'asshopper- Warbler ; they are white, very 

 transparent, and covered with pale ashy and chestnut or reddish spots and dots, which are less 

 numerous and smaller than those on the eggs of Savi's Warbler : often these spots are collected 

 round the larger end, but never so closely as to hide the white ground-colour of the egg. In 

 one nest I found two eggs, which I removed, and put in two Garden- Warbler's eggs. On 

 revisiting the nest a few days later I found two more River- Warbler's eggs, but the Garden- 

 Warbler's eggs had gone. I repeated my former experiment, and two days afterwards I found 

 the eggs of the Garden- Warbler again removed and one egg of the River- Warbler in the nest. 

 I believe the bird would act in a similar manner if a Cuckoo deposited her egg in its nest." 



I possess the eggs of this Warbler, collected in Silesia. In general character they resemble 

 those of Savi's Warbler, but have a rather whiter ground, and somewhat more clearly defined 

 spots. The ground-colour is white ; and they are minutely spotted with greyish lilac underlying 

 shell-markings and dark reddish brown overlying surface-spots, or dots ; for the spots are very 

 small, and, though generally scattered over the surface of the shell, are thicker at the larger end. 

 In size six eggs in my collection average ff by -f-f inch. 



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