266 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
The nest is built of dry, soft reed-skins, lined with 
fine grasses or flower of reeds, cup-shaped and deep, 
and is supported by three or four stems of the pipe- 
reeds, growing in the water, round which the exterior 
walls of the nest are woven. 
The eggs number three, and are of a greyish ground- 
colour with irregular blotches of brown, lilac, and 
yellow. 
Sometimes the nest is built in a willow tree in 
swampy localities ; one was once found in Kardinia 
Park in such a site. In certain gardens in Newtown 
there are clumps of tall bamboo, froPxi which, about 
the middle of September, Reed-warblers' notes are 
frequently heard, and I should think they nested there. 
Whether the Reed-warbler migrates by day or 
night is not known. The birds become silent soon 
after the New Year, and by April the last have left 
us for the season. 
CROP-WARBLER 
Cisticola exilis exilis 
This is a very small bird, not more than 4 inches 
long ; an inconspicuous little creature, blackish 
brown above and buff below, but readily identifiable 
by its song once this has been heard. It is a short, 
rich trill, often repeated, and is delivered while the 
bird is rising from the crop into the air, which it does 
with a buzzing motion of the wings and short jerky 
graduations, mounting till one can hardly see it. 
