58 
BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND. 
took a few short walks for purposes of observation, and, during one of them, came 
to a spot in which I should expect to find nesting the Sedge, and, possibly, the 
Reed- Warbler. This spot, although in Leicester and of considerable extent, is 
yet very difficult of approach to pedestrians ; accordingly, the following 3Iay, I, 
with a young friend, launched my double canoe and paddled through the reeds 
until we could find a landing-place. The season being very backward, the new 
growth of reeds was but just springing, and we had an almost uninterrupted view 
of any birds we might flush. Soon I had the pleasure of seeing, and hearing, 
both the birds we came in search of ; and then we commenced nest-hunting in 
earnest, with the result that, in about an hour, we had found eleven nests of four 
species of birds, three of which were those of Acrocephalus streperas. Tliey 
were not, however, so forward in construction as the Sedge-Warblers’ or the other 
birds’, all of which latter had eggs. We contented ourselves that day with 
merely looking on and admiring, but on the 9th .Tune we paddled down again 
with some ladies, and, in addition to finding many more Sedge- Warblers’ nests, 
found several more of the Reed-Warbler, a beautiful specimen of which, with 
five eggs, we took for the IMuseum, as also one with four eggs of the “ Sedge.” 
Although we found both species so abundant that, had we been so minded, we 
might have taken twenty or more nests, yet so charming were they in situ, that 
we were loth to take even the two we did. The nest we have is very beautiful, of 
a deep cup-like form, placed between three old, and four newly-grown, reeds, and 
built externally of pieces of coarse grass, moss. Sheep’s wool, string, and one or 
two pieces of Swan’s down, superimposed on a stratum of last year’s feathery 
heads of the reed, which are so arranged that the softest part is woven towards 
the inside, thus forming an elastic receptacle for the eggs. Why the greatest 
quantity of wool and down should be woven outside the nest, I cannot tell, but 
in all the nests we e.xamined, we found this the case. On the 13th June, 1885, 
1 visited the same locality, which is a reed-bed just under the Castle, actually 
in Leicester itself, and, although in reality an island — being bounded on one 
side by the canalised river, and on the other three by a narrow stream— is yet 
closely surrounded by houses, churches, and factories, and there found the nests 
and eggs of this bird in numbers, several being secured for the jNIuseum. I\Iost 
of them were difficult of approach, but one was built in the forks of a small 
elder-bush, being woven around the upright shoots in just the same manner as 
if in reeds. The Flood Scheme being in operation, and 1888 being probably the 
last year the reed-bed will remain intact, I again visited the locality, on 15th 
June, and found a beautiful nest containing four eggs, built low down among 
the reeds mixed with the willow-herb. A nest containing eggs, which I came 
across at Aylestone on 11th June, 1885, was built, like a Whitethroat’s, in the 
forks of a blackthorn growing in the middle of a large hawthorn-bush fringing 
the river. Another, also at Aylestone, was built in a privet-bush, in a garden 
close to the water. In addition to the localities mentioned, I find it nests also 
