304 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and development of song, although perhaps the influence of the emotions 

 (as of joy, hostility, &c.) has in no small degree contributed to the develop- 

 ment. Many writers regard song as the expression of " superabundant 

 nervous energy" (in the words of a distinguished naturalist), but it cannot, 

 I think, be maintained that the most active birds are the greatest songsters. 

 The subject in all its phases is worthy of the attention of zoologists. — 

 W. C. J. Ruskin Butterfield (Stanhope Place, St. Leonards-on-Sea). 



Date of Arrival in England of the Marsh Warbler. — The following 

 dates may throw some light on this point, about which our text-books are 

 somewhat vague : — 



June 5, 1892. Full song; no sign of nest. (Oxfordshire, W. W. F.) 

 June 20, 1893. Full song; nest well advanced. Egg, 25th. (Oxford- 

 shire, W. W. F.) 

 June 19, 1894. Nest with two eggs. (Near Bristol, H. C. Playne.) 

 June J 6, 1894. Full song ; nest not discovered. (Oxfordshire, W. W. F.) 

 June 6, 1895. Full song; no sign of nest or female. (Bristol, H. C. P.) 

 June 11, 1895. Song; no sign of nest. (Oxfordshire, W. W. F. ) 

 These dates accord fairly well with those which I can find given exactly 

 in former volumes of * The Zoologist.' Thus in Zool. 1877, p. 334, we 

 have eggs on June 22; 1882, p. 306, eggs June 30; 1883, p. 295, eggs 

 June 7 ; 1889, p. 451, eggs June 5. Hence it would seem that this species 

 must reach us about the middle of May ; but, so far as my experience goes, 

 it does not arrive at its usual breeding ground much before June. In fact, 

 I have never yet succeeded in detecting its song earlier than June 5th, and 

 then it did not remain long in the spot where I first heard it. It is said by 

 Prof. Giglioli to arrive in Italy in April ; and Herr Gatke tells us that it 

 appears in Heligoland about the beginning of May. But when I was in 

 Switzerland, at the end of April last, it was not in its accustomed haunts; 

 and the reason was obvious— the plants in which it loves to breed were not 

 yet grown up. It is apparently a species which is very particular about 

 the kind of covert which it affects for breeding purposes, especially in this 

 country, where it has almost always been found in withy-beds ; and, until 

 this covert is ready for it, it will not make itself obvious to eye or ear. 

 I think it probable that the date of its breeding will be found to vary from 

 the beginning to the end of June, according to the state of the undergrowth 

 in withy-beds in different seasons ; but in all probability the birds — i. e. the 

 males — arrive pretty regularly in May. — W. Warde Fowler (Oxford). 



Nesting of the Marsh Warbler near Bath.— It may be of interest to 

 note that on June 20tb last I had the good fortune to discover a nest of the 

 Marsh Warbler, Acrocephalus palustris, in an osier-bed near Bath. Mr. 

 Hall and Mr. Playne, of Clifton College, both of whom are well acquainted 

 with the species, immediately identified the nest as that of the Marsh 



