288 Mr. T. Ayres on the Ornithology of Transvaal. 
This species entirely inhabits the dense sedges of our 
swamps^ where it hides pretty carefully, but towards evening 
appears a little more boldly, to feed amongst the sedges on the 
edges of the little rivulets. 
[Other specimens of this Warbler from Transvaal have 
recently been acquired by the British Museum.—J. H. G.] 
291. Acrocephalus arundinaceus (Linn.). European 
Greater Heed-Warbler. 
Acrocephalus fulvolateralls, Sharpe'^. 
Male, shot at Potchefstroom, 27th March. Total length 
8 inches, bill 1, tarsus 1:^ (fully), wing 3f, tail 3. Head 
slightly crested; irides pale dusky hazel ; bill dusky, except¬ 
ing a considerable portion of the lower mandible, which gra¬ 
dually pales from the tip to the gape; inside of mouth bright 
orange-red; tarsi and feet pale ash-colour, soles of the feet 
very pale yellow. Stomach contained insects. 
This is here the scarcest species of the genus; I have 
only occasionally seen them in the hedgerows of the town, 
principally among the low fig-trees, never amongst the reeds 
or sedges of the open country. 
[The specimen sent is in moult, and agrees with the type 
of A. fulvolateralis in the British Museum ; but Mr. Seebohm 
informs me that he does not consider the latter to be speci¬ 
fically distinct from the European A. arundinaceus) and, so 
far as I can judge, this opinion is well founded.—J. H. G.] 
Acrocephalus b^eticatus (VieilL). Lesser South-African 
Beed-Warbler. 
Female, shot 27th April. Irides pale ashy brown; bill 
pale, but dusky along the ridge and on the tip of the under 
mandible; tarsi and feet light yellowish ash-colour. 
This little Warbler appears in the spring, and remains all 
through the summer. It is here now (23rd October), enli¬ 
vening the place with its constant babbling. It appears to 
stick pretty much to the pollard willows in the hedgerows of 
the town; but it also frequents the rose-hedges and some¬ 
times the reeds along the hedgerows. The numbers of in- 
^ Vide 2nd edition of Layard’s ^ Birds of South Africa/ p. 280. 
