BRITISH WARBLERS 



LIFE-HISTORY. 



Arriving in this country about April 25th, these birds 

 choose many varied spots for their home ; osier-beds, where the 

 various species of sedge grow in abundance, they favour most, 

 although at times they will choose a thick and tangled hedge- 

 row, and again, and this very frequently, they may be found 

 amongst the dense masses of the Aranclo phragmitis, but in 

 the drier portions. The arrival of the males, and perhaps of 

 the females also, is rather irregular ; that is to say, a few will 

 appear one morning, then there will be a pause, and a few 

 days later another batch will arrive, and so on until the 

 migration of the males ceases, about a fortnight after the 

 arrival of the first individual. 



Their arrival can soon be detected by their babbling song, 

 an energetic but unmusical strain, and where first heard there 

 they will probably be found to breed, for they are by nature 

 most home-loving individuals. 



Water or swampy ground seems to be a necessity for 

 them, for they are rarely to be found breeding in dry places. 

 I have occasionally come across them in small dry coppices, 

 but never very far away from water of some description. 

 They inhabit more particularly wet osier-beds, where the 

 different sedges, the Gar ex ovalis, Car ex acuta and Car ex 

 riparia grow abundantly, but they seem to prefer them when 

 rather drier, that is to say, where the willows are young 

 and thick, and where the J uncus effu.su s, Spircea ulmaria 

 (meadow sweet) and different species of Epilobium (willow 

 herb) grow in tangled masses. Along the banks of rivers and 

 streams they are often common, and are abundant on pools 

 and lakes, where aquatic plants, such as Scirpus lacustris 

 Typha latifolia (bullrush) and the tall reeds (Arundo phragmitis) 

 grow. Where these reeds grow to a great height, as they do 

 in Holland and Hungary, and where the bottom is a dry mass 

 of roots raised above the water, there I have found them 

 exceedingly common. 



