64 
British Birds. 
THE 
MARSH-WARBLER. 
( Acrocephalus pahistris.) 
but becomes rarer towards the south-western and northern portions of its range, 
and is not yet known to have occurred for certain in Scotland or in Ireland. Its 
breeding-area is spread over the greater part of Europe, below the line of the Baltic 
Provinces and Southern Sweden, as far east as Turkestan ; it winters along the 
Persian Gulf and in the Mediterranean. 
The Reed-Warbler builds in many of the swamps and ditches of the south of 
England, its nest being suspended between reeds, but it is not uncommonly found in 
willow-trees and bushes by the side of the rivers. It is a noisy little songster, its 
notes resembling those of the Sedge-Warbler, and the song is to be heard after 
darkness has set in. It is, like the rest of the Reed-Warblers, a shy and retiring bird, 
and is more often heard than seen, excepting before the autumn migration, when 
family parties consisting of the old and young birds are often to be noticed on the 
alders and willows, by the river’s edge, before they migrate to their southern home. 
The nest is cup-shaped, made of dry grass with a little wool and thistle-down, and 
the eggs are from four to six in number, the ground-colour being greenish or greyish- 
white, with pronounced mottlings and spots of greenish-brown and violet-grey, often 
forming a ring round the larger end of the egg. 
This species is very similar to the Reed-Warbler, and 
resembles it in form and in the proportion of the quills, the 
bastard-primary not exceeding the primary-coverts in length, 
but with the second primary longer than the fifth. The 
Marsh-Warbler is very difficult to tell 
from the Reed- Warbler, and the only 
characters of importance are the 
greenish-olive-brown colour of the back, 
the paler and more sulphur-coloured 
(less rufous) tint of the buff on the 
under surface of the body, and the 
paler colour of the legs. Nevertheless 
it is advisable to submit any supposed 
Marsh-Warblers for the opinion of an 
expert, as many of the specimens 
certified in ornithological works to be 
Marsh-Warblers have turned out, after 
all, to be only Reed-Warblers. 
On the Continent the Marsh- 
Warbler is a thoroughly recognised 
species, distinguished not only by its 
different colour and its song, but by its 
nesting-habits, and that the species 
The Marsh-Warbler. comes to Great Britain every summer 
