REED WARBLER 
45 
and breast. But it chiefly makes itself known by 
its song ; this is not very musical, and consists of 
two distinct halves, five or six sharp, twittering 
notes being followed by a sort of prolonged 
shivering trill. The nest is built early in May, 
the Wood Wren arriving rather later than the 
other two kindred species. It is placed on the 
floor of a wood, among the dead leaves, brambles, 
and more or less scanty green stuff, and is very 
closely concealed, often being a cell half under- 
ground, like some nests of the Willow Wren. It 
is domed, and made of dry grass, leaves and moss, 
but unlike the nests of the two other birds it is 
lined with soft grass and never with feathers. The 
eggs are white, spotted, more thickly than those of 
the other species, with chocolate brown and fainter 
flakes of grey. It was first distinguished as a 
species by Gilbert White ; the tall beech- woods 
which cover large parts of the magnificent hills 
near Selborne are exactly suited to its habits. 
REED WARBLER. 
[Acrocephalus streperus.) 
Reed Wren. — This bird and the two next in 
order are the British representatives of another 
extensive European group, for which a good 
