BEITISH WARBLERS 



trembling, and further in the reflexes that are commonly 

 awakened in the face of an enemy, such as inflation, erection 

 of hair or feathers, lifting the voice, &c. These are obviously 

 the material from which Nature has derived the peculiar arts 

 of courtship in all their variety, and these arts as we have 

 seen are then extended to occasions which have no sexual 

 meaning." But surely the restless fluttering, running about, 

 skipping, trembling and so forth are the peculiar arts of court- 

 ship ; at least, I am aware of scarcely any sexual behaviour 

 that could not justly be included under one of these 

 headings. 



The detailed life-history of the Marsh Warbler, which now 

 follows, entails a repetition of certain features of behaviour 

 to which allusion has already been made, and if the fore- 

 going discussion fails in its first purpose to make clear 

 the necessity for such comparisons as we shall presently 

 institute, it will, I hope, serve to show the complexity and 

 difficulty of the subject, and how much remains to be 

 explained. Owing to its peculiarly close relationship to 

 the Eeed Warbler, few birds have been of greater interest 

 to me than the Marsh Warbler, and I find it difficult to 

 analyse its habits and instincts, or institute comparisons 

 between its behaviour and that of the Eeed Warbler without 

 being constantly awakened to the fact that some lesson is 

 to be learnt from its life. In the following account the 

 different phases of its life-history will therefore be com. 

 pared, wherever possible, with those which correspond to them 

 in the life of the Eeed Warbler. 



The latest of all our summer migrants to arrive at its 

 breeding haunts, it is said to reach Oxfordshire during the last 

 few days of May or, more usually, the first few days of June, 

 and this agrees with my own experience of the bird in 

 Worcestershire, where I have observed it in the Severn Valley. 

 In that district May 30th is the usual date of arrival, but in 

 other parts of the country it has been known to arrive some 

 few days earlier. In Gloucestershire the average date for fresh 



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