-'28 
ALLENS NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 
eye, with a distinct white eyebrow, reaching from the nostrils 
to a little beyond the eye ; eyelid also whitish ; cheeks, throat, 
and under surface of body white, the breast and sides of the 
body tawny-buff, as well as the thighs and under tail-coverts ; 
under wing-coverts, axillaries, and quill-lining, rich tawny-buff ; 
bill dark brown, the lower mandible lighter and more yellow at 
the base and at the gape; feet pale horn-colour; iris brown. 
Total length, 7’8 inches; culmen, o'8 , wing, ; tail, 2-95 ; 
tarsus, i ‘3. 
Adult Female.— Does not differ from the male in colour. 
Total length, 7‘5 inches; wing, 3’6. 
In Autumn and Winter Pannage the colours are a little more 
fulvescent, especially on the eyebrow and on the under- 
parts. 
Young- Birds, after the autumn moult, are decidedly more 
tawny than in summer, and have some indistinct streaks on the 
lower throat and fore-neck. During the nesting season, the 
plumage gets much abraded and worn, so that the throat and 
breast become bleached white, and the narrow whitish tips to 
the quills and tail-feathers wear off. 
Range in Great Britain. — A rare and occasional visitor, the 
authentic instances of its appearance not exceeding half-a- 
dozen, while many supposed records are unworthy of credence, 
as is the case with all the statements of its breeding in this 
country. Not that there is any reason why the species should 
not do so, for it is common on the Continent in countries 
almost within sight of England. 
Range outside the British Islands. — The Great Reed-Warbler 
nests throughout the greater part of Europe south of the 
British Islands and the Baltic, and is only an accidental visitor 
to the south of Sweden. On the western shores of the Baltic 
Sea it occurs, according to Dr. Pleske, as far north as 59" 30“ 
W. lat., thence its range tends southward to 54° on the Volga, 
and rises again in the Urals to 57°, but the above-named author 
believes that its frontier line in the Volga district may require 
rectification in a northerly direction. It breeds as far east as 
Turkestan, and through Persia, Asia Minor, and Palestine. To 
the eastward it crosses the range of Acrocephalus slentoreus, 
