62 
British Birds. 
near Dover. In appearance the Aquatic Warbler is very like the Sedge-Warbler, 
but has a pale streak down the centre of the crown with a black band on either side. 
It is more of a reed-haunting species than the Sedge-Warblers, and it differs con- 
siderably from that species in its choice of a nesting-place. The nest is made of 
grass and lined with horse-hair. It is never suspended in reeds but is built near the 
ground among the sedge or stalks of water plants. The eggs exactly resemble 
those of the Sedge-Warbler, and are four or five in number. 
The present species is distinguished from the Aquatic 
Warbler by the absence of the pale streak along the crown of 
the head, this resembling the back, the whole upper surface 
being russet brown streaked with black, the rump and upper 
tail-coverts being more uniform rufous. It has a very distinct 
eyebrow, which can always be seen in the living bird. Young birds resemble the 
THE 
SEDGE-WARBLER. 
(Acrocephalns 
phragmitis.) 
The Sedge-Warbler. 
adults, but have the under surface more yellow, and shew a few triangular dusky 
brown spots on the fore-neck. The Sedge- Warbler is a smaller bird than the Reed- 
Warbler or the Marsh-Warbler, which are uniform on the upper surface and therefore 
easily recognisable. The species winters in South Africa and apparently migrates back 
to Europe by the Great Lakes and the Nile Valley route, arriving at its breeding 
quarters in April or early in May. From Turkestan to Central and Northern Europe 
the species nests freely in the vicinity of water, but is sometimes found building 
at some distance from the latter. The nest is made of dry grass-stems and 
dead water-plants, scantily lined with hair and pieces of vegetable down ; it 
is placed on a platform of dead reeds or on a branch overhanging the water, 
sometimes being on the ground itself. The eggs are from four to six in number, 
