REED WARBLER. 
141 
the eye stripe is less marked and distinct. 
There is also perhaps a slight difference in size. 
Length of the male about five inches. 
The Reed Warbler — Salicaria arun- 
dinacea, Selby . — Curruca arundinacea, Briss. 
Sioain. — Reed Wren and Reed Warbler of 
British authors. — This bird closely resembles 
the last in habits and disposition, being nearly 
equally garrulous, imitating the notes of other 
birds, singing during the whole day, and often 
during the greater part of light nights. It is, 
however, much more local, and confined in its 
distribution, occurring only in the southern and 
in a few of the midland counties of England, and 
these again only in favourite localities, brakes of 
reeds, and willow beds. They often occur in some 
favourite haunt which scarcely exceeds an acre in 
extent, w'here they make limited excursions for a 
few hundred yards in search of food, returning 
with the captured prey to their young or mate. 
The nest of this warbler is almost completely 
pensile, being fixed or woven to stalks of aquatic 
plants, often so fragile as to almost touch the 
surface of the water when acted on by the blast.* 
“ The nest,” writes Mr Yarrell, describing from 
a specimen before him, “ is formed of the seed 
branches of the reeds, and by long grass wound 
horizontally round and round, including four 
upright reeds in the substance, thus forming, 
Montague’s Ornithological Dictionary. 
