REED WARBLER. 
93 
tlie S-ith of which month we have in our note-book tlie fol¬ 
lowing memorandum : among the pollard willows beside the 
Abbey river we heard some birds making a croaking noise, 
which sounded much like the alarm-note of the nightingale : 
after watching a little while, we observed several small birds 
flitting about, and found them to be young Reed-warblers 
that could just fly, and were receiving food from their parents. 
Their note resembled, ikurrrrrr! ikurrrrrr ! uttered croak- 
ingly. The young birds, which we could distinguish by their 
shorter tails, looked the yellowest; the old birds were nearly 
white beneath, and had a bluish cast upon the chin and 
throat. 
The abbey river above mentioned is a small stream that 
runs through Chertsey in Surrey, and joins the Thames near 
the spot where the ancient abbey of that name stood. We 
mention the spot as being a singular locality for a bird usually 
considered shy ; the place where the young birds were seen, 
and where doubtless they had been hatched, was not a stone’s 
throw from the main street of the town, with which the little 
river runs parallel at that part. 
The Reed Warbler is not uncommon in this country in 
the eastern and southern counties, but is rarely found in the 
midland, and has not been met with further north than 
Derbyshire. It is also very local even in these parts. 
According to Temminck, this species is very abundant in 
reedy spots in Holland, France, and Germany, but rare in 
more eastern countries. It retires early from Europe. 
The entire length of this bird is five inches and a half. 
The wing, from the carpus to the tip, is two inches and a 
half; and the tail extends nearly an inch and a half beyond 
the wings when closed ; the two middle feathers of the tail 
are the longest, and are rather pointed. The beak is slender 
and long, measuring five lines from the forehead, and nine 
lines from the gape, to the tip ; it is brown on the upper 
VOL. II. 
H 
