OBNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FBOM THE BHINE. G7 



specially wished to meet with the Marsh Warbler, but it was not 

 till about May 24th, a full fortnight after the Heed Warblers had 

 settled down amongst the willows, that they reached their summer 

 quarters. In a day or two they had taken possession of the fringe 

 of willow-scrub on both banks of the Rhine. I have never 

 before seen a cover so swarming with any one species of 

 Warbler. I found them just as abundant upon similar ground 

 on the island of Grafenwerth, and beside the Moselle at Coblenz. 

 They skulk much less than the Reed Warbler, often singing, in 

 full view, a sweet and charming song with real melody, some 

 notes as liquid as those of a Goldfinch, though delivered in the 

 hurried style of all aquatic warblers. Many pairs settled down 

 to breed in the rye, which was then in the ear. I have found 

 them several miles from the Rhine, on the dryest of corn-land, 

 far from sedge or willow cover, and with no water but a small 

 brook in the neighbourhood. Under such circumstances the 

 song often puzzled me for a moment, so little did the locality 

 suggest the Marsh Warbler. I found a nest with two eggs on 

 May 31st, two more with three and five respectively on June 10th. 

 All were in nettles, meadow-sweet, or similar undergrowth. 

 Early in July the song gave place to a low scolding note, which 

 I heard from time to time in the jungle till Sept. 8th. Curiously, 

 I could never meet with the Sedge Warbler or the Great Reed 

 Warbler ; once only with the Grasshopper Warbler. 



One other denizen of the willow-scrub remains to be men- 

 tioned. It was on May 10th that an unknown song drew my 

 attention to a bird perched upon a willow-spray. The telescope 

 showed a Bluethroat in all his glory of white-spotted blue gorget, 

 with black and chestnut band below. He sat like a Redstart, 

 but with his ruddy tail half spread. I soon found that the Blue- 

 throat was common along the Rhine and Sieg, wherever the right 

 sort of ground occurred, — sandy wastes, with clumps of reed or 

 with willow and other undergrowth. The two islands of Nonnen- 

 werth and Grafenwerth, which the Rhine tourist sees as soon as 

 the Drachenfels is passed, both run out into long sandy willow- 

 grown spits, which I found to be tenanted by several pairs. 

 There is no need to describe the song after the excellent account 

 of it given by Mr. 0. V. Aplin (Zool., Nov., 1896, p. 427). The 

 males perched upon a reed-stem or willow-spray, always in 



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