O;^ AQUATIC WAPaJLEll. 



call is like the rest of the Reed Warblers'; its love- 

 song, though loud, is also pleasant, and comes almost 

 always from the depth of the reed-beds, and seldom 

 from the summit of the stalks: it is, however, propor- 

 tionally often heard among trees. It builds its nest in 

 the swamp; the exterior is formed of coarse grass tops, 

 intertwined with delicate straws: it is lined inside with 

 horse-hair. It is placed between the slender twigs of 

 small bushes, and always especially found in isolated 

 marshy places intersected with ditches. It lays in the 

 beginning of May four or five, rarely six, eggs, grey- 

 greenish on grey-yellowish ground, with spots more or 

 less strongly marked, darker than the ground colour." 



Brehm, in Badeker's "European Eggs," says of this 

 species: — "It breeds in Holland, Greece, Germany, and 

 probably in Switzerland and Italy. At the end of 

 April we hear its nuptial song in the marshes, among 

 the bulrushes, reeds, and bog j)lants which grow there. 

 Its nest may be found the end of May, containing five or 

 six eggs, deep under a clump of sedges, in the grass 

 behind rubbish, or on the bank of a hedge near water, 

 hanging on the stalks of a plant. It is unlike the 

 nest of the Sedge Warbler in being smaller, but is 

 built of the same materials, namely, small rootlets, 

 mixed with strips of reed and straw, under which is 

 also some horse-hair. The eggs are smaller, brighter, 

 smoother, and more shining than those of S. phragmites, 

 and are often marked with hair-streaks. Very often 

 the markings are so faint that the e^^ appears unicolorous. 

 Once we found a nest containing eggs washed with 

 carmine. The male sits but little, the female most 

 assiduously. Incubation thirteen days." 



M. Moquin-Tandon has kindly sent me the drawing 

 from which the figure of my c^2, is taken, with the 



