REED WARBLER. 



417 



number of these nests, I never found one in such localities, the usual 

 place chosen being- the brow of a ditch bank or a pent drain. Latham 

 says he has seen the bird about hedges, but more frequently near water, 

 which agrees with my own observations. * The nest is composed of 

 stalks of grass, or other dry veg etable substances ; sometimes partly moss, 

 and lined with fine grass; frequently finished with long hair, The eggs, 

 which are four or five in number, weigh about thirty-six grains, and 

 are of a dirty bluish white, or purplish brown, with numerous dark 

 coloured spots and veins, much resembling- those of the chaffinch. We 

 shall here remark that the eggs of very distinct species of birds are 

 sometimes very similar, and not easily ascertained ; they are also subject 

 to considerable variation: the nest affords a much greater distinction, 

 the materials of which they are composed seldom varying. It feeds on 

 insects and grass seeds, of reeds, and other aquatic plants. 



REED WARBLER (Curruca arundinacea^ Brisson.) 



*Sylvia arundinacea, Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 510. sp. 12 — Motacilla arundinacea, 

 Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 992. sp. 167. — Curruca arundinacea, Briss. Orn. 5. p. 378. 5. 

 Flem. Br. Anim. p. 69. — Passer arundinaceus minor, Raii, Syn. p. 47. — 

 Will. p. 97.— Fauvette de Roseaux, Buff. Ois. 5 p. 142 — Bee-fin de Roseaux, 

 ou Efarvotte, Temm. Man. d'Orn. 1. p. 191. — Rhorsanger, Meyer, Tasschenb. 

 1. p. 235.— Ib. Vog. Deut. p. 2. Heft. p. 23.— Het Karrakietje, Sepp. Nederl. 

 Vog. 2. t. p. 101.— Lesser Reed Sparrow, Will. (AngL) p. 144.— Reed Wren, 

 Lath. Syn. Supp. sp. 184. — Mont. Orn. Diet. — Lewin's Br. Birds, 3. t. 114. — 

 Sweet's Br. Warblers, p. U.—Selby, pi. 45**. fig. 3. p. 171.* 



The length of this species is scarce five inches and a half ; weight 

 nearly three drams ; the bill is about half an inch in length, dusky 

 above, yellowish beneath, and broad at the base : at the corner of the 

 mouth are three strong bristles ; irides hazel. 



The plumage of the whole upper parts of the bird are of a plain olive- 

 brown ; the under parts yellowish white, lightest on the throat and 

 down the middle of the belly ; the sides a little inclining to rufous- 

 brown ; from the bill to the eye is an obscure lightish streak ; eyelids 

 lighter, but no stroke over the eye ; the tail is cuneiform ; the feathers, 

 like those of the quills, dusky brown, edged with the same colour as the 

 back ; legs dusky brown. 



This bird has been in general confounded with the sedge bird ; 

 its form, size, manners, and habits are alike, and both are migrative 

 species, so that it is difficult to discover which of these birds most au- 

 thors mean by their descriptions. The Reed Warbler, however, may 

 at once be distinguished from the other, by the base of the bill being 

 broader, in having no light stroke over the eye, which in the other is 

 broad and conspicuous ; and in the whole upper parts being of one 

 plain colour. 



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