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the eggs vary in number from four to six, pure white sprinkled all 
over with small purplish spots, rather confluent at the larger end ; 
full size of the Greater Titmouse. The nest is generally placed in a 
tuft of grass or rushes near the ground by the side of the water 
ditches in the fens, sometimes on the broken-down reeds, but 
never suspended between the reed-stems in the manner of the 
Reed Wren. In the autumn they disperse themselves in little 
parties along shore, where ever there is an acre or two of reeds ; 
during the winter months they feed entirely on the seed of the 
reed, & so busily employed are they in searching for their food that 
I have taken them with a lino birdlime twig attached to the end of 
a fishing rod : when alarmed by any noise they drop down among 
the reeds but soon resume their station again, climbing up the reed 
stems with the greatest facility. I have frequently seen a reed 
bent down with the weight of a Bird nearly to the water’s edge ; 
sometimes hanging with its back downwards in the most beautiful 
attitudes : they are found a considerable way inland. I observed 
many of them on the borders of Whittlesea Mere the beginning of 
July 1826, with their young; the young Birds have black feathers, 
extending from the hind part of the neck down the middle of the 
back to the rump, which they lose the first moulting ; their food in 
the summer consists of Insects & their lame & the seeds of the 
larger rush which grows in abundance in most waters. Your 
account of the nest of Sylvia Locustella differs rather from several 
that have come under my observation : it is composed externally of 
moss Sc a few dead leaves & lined with the decayed stems of the 
Ladies bed straw, galium, and some pieces of fine grass, it does not 
bear any resemblance to the common Whitethroat’s being a large, 
close-built nest, greater in size & thickness than even the Sedge 
Warbler’s: the eggs from six to seven in number of a fine rose color, 
very thickly sprinkled with minute spots of a rather deeper shade. 
I have four different times succeeded in finding its well-concealed 
nest : it frequents low underwood, & places its nest in a low stub or 
bush near the ground ; the grass is pulled down & arched over it in a 
curious manner, Sc there is an opening on one side by which the Bird 
runs on & off its nest : the Male and Female sit alternately. I have 
seen them here as late as the first week in Sep <r - The Tree Sparrow 
visits us regularly in autumn in considerable numbers & remains until 
Feb y or March. The Siskin I have observed in most seasons; this 
u n 
