120 
SYLVIADvE. 
which it is placed are often bowed by the wind to the 
surface of the water, the eggs and young ones ride 
secure. 
To Mr. Henry Doubleday, of Epping, and Mr. J. J. 
Briggs, of Melbourne, Derbyshire, who finds them in 
his own neighbourhood, I am indebted for several of 
the nests of the Reed Warbler, together with the eggs. 
Each nest is supported by four or five reeds, and forms 
a singularly beautiful object, the long grassy leaves of 
the plant bending over it. 
The nest is composed almost entirely of the flowering 
tops of reeds, finer towards its centre, which is some¬ 
times completed by the addition of a few hairs ; the 
outside is bound round and kept firm by lon'g grass, 
mixed with wool, which is at the same time twisted 
round the reeds. A good figure of the nest is given in 
“ Yarrell’s British Birds.” 
The eggs, which are four or five in number, although 
in some of their varieties resembling those of the sedge 
warbler, are yet readily distinguished by their deeper 
colouring, which is for the most part in distinct spots. 
I have seen a few of these eggs, which are rather like 
those of the whitethroat. The variety at fig. 2 , from 
the collection of Mr. A. Newton, is a good deal like 
some of the eggs of Sylvia Orphea . An egg in the 
collection of Mr. Bond is nearly white, slightly marked 
with gray spots. 
Bolton mentions having found a nest of this bird in a 
low hazel; and Sweet met with another in the low side 
branches of a poplar. 
I must confess that I read these statements with some¬ 
thing of incredulity, until the last summer, during which, 
Mr. Brown, a bird-stufler in Bath, procured for me 
several nests from gardens in that city, lying near the 
