SEDGE WARBLER 
61 
hood of Rugby in Warwickshire, but there is no 
reason to suppose that it does not yearly frequent 
suitable river-sides and osier-beds in many other 
parts of the country. No one has done so much 
to throw light upon the Marsh Warbler's occur- 
rence and habits in England as Mr. W. Warde 
Fowler, in whose now celebrated osier-bed in 
Oxfordshire I was kindly permitted to make the 
acquaintance of this very interesting species in the 
summers of 1898 and 1900. 
SEDGE WARBLER. 
(^Acrocephalus phragmitis.) 
Sedge-bird. — The Sedge Warbler is one of the 
commonest birds of all overgrown streamsides, 
moist, marshy copses and osier-beds, and every 
place where it can find its two chief requisites of 
water and abundant undergrowth. It comes to 
this country in the great inrush of summer birds 
which arrives about the middle of April, after the 
first pioneers, such as the Willow Wren and ChifF- 
chafF, are already settled in their haunts, and from 
that time onwards, even till the beginning of 
autumn, it sings more persistently than perhaps 
any other British bird. Its song is a hurried, 
chattering warble, and it is easy to learn to dis- 
tinguish it by the peculiar mixture of sweet and 
£ 2 / 
