REED WARBLER 
47 
its sides, and has an extremely deep cup, so that 
the nest can be rocked to and fro by the reeds as 
they bend in the wind without the eggs being 
upset. The grey plumes of last year's reeds, and 
the cottony catkins of poplars and willows, supply 
most of the material, but the bird also makes use 
of moss, wool, and occasionally bits of thread or 
cotton, while there is often some horse-hair in the 
lining. The eggs are greenish-white in ground 
colour, thickly spotted and mottled with dark 
green, greenish-brown, and ash grey. Five is the 
usual number. This is a very common nest in 
which to find the Cuckoo's egg or young. The 
Reed Warbler is another bird which it is much 
harder to see than to hear. It often takes a good 
deal of watching to get more than a succession of 
short and fitful glimpses of these slender and lis- 
som little birds, reddish-brown above and creamy 
white below, as they climb up the reed stems, and 
slip about in the dense groves of slender sway- 
ing columns, where the grey nests stand transfixed 
above the water. But the silvery, babbling song 
of the Reed Warblers will flow from the reed-bed 
almost without ceasing, and often far into the 
night. It has a strong family resemblance to the 
song of the common Sedge Warbler, but is a great 
deal sweeter in tone, and has not such strong and 
sudden contrasts of harsh and musical notes. 
