446 MR. W. W. FOWLER ON BIRDS OF THE VALLEY OF THE SOMME. 
Rext morning we renewed our acquaintance with the Great Reed 
Warblers, and had excellent views of many of them ; the brilliant 
sunshine lit up the strong rufous colour of their upper parts, which 
seems to increase in brightness towards the tail. Their attitude 
when singing on a reed is very like that of the Reed and Sedge 
Warblers ; the white feathers of the throat are puffed out, and the 
orange gape is shown distinctly, as in the case of the smaller 
species. Just inside a garden close to the pool on the left-hand 
side of the road, we found a small Warbler singing a varied, 
imitative, and most enjoyable song, which reminded us of that 
of the Marsh Warbler, and puzzled us for some time ; this was 
certainly the Icterine Warbler, as we made out satisfactorily the next 
day at Abbeville. When we came to know this song better, the 
difference between it and that of the Marsh Warbler became 
obvious ; the general character is not unlike, but it is quieter, 
less shrill, and does not carry nearly so far. In spite of my 
deafness, I could detect the Marsh Warbler across the whole 
breadth of the 'Somme; but the other I did not hear until close 
upon it. The Icterine, like the Blackcap and Garden Warbler, 
remains quietly singing in the same Apple-tree as long as you 
like to listen ; the Marsh Warbler, on the other hand, is seldom 
in one spot for more than two or three minutes. 
While watching these Warblers, a largish brown bird twice 
rose out of the reeds, flew somewhat heavily a short distance and 
dropped into them again, giving me a good but very short look 
through the glass ; the bill was unquestionably that of a Bittern, 
and as I am told that the Little Bittern looks larger in flight than 
he really is, I imagine my bird was of that species. Macpherson 
unluckily did not get a good view of it. 
We next took train to Abbeville, some thirty miles further 
down the Somme, and not far from its mouth at St. Valery. 
Abbeville would make an excellent head-quarters for any one 
wishing to study the birds of this district ; and it may be as 
well to advise such persons to avoid the slovenly Hotel de la Gare, 
which is marked with an asterisk in Badeker, and to patronise 
the old-fashioned Tete de Boeuf in the middle of the town. All 
the way from Amiens to Abbeville the Somme flows through 
a broad valley between cultivated chalk hills, in a maze of streams, 
ditches, and meres bordered with Reeds, Willows, and Poplars, as 
