91 
GREAT SEDGE WARBLER. 
Salicaria turdoides, SELBY. 
Saliz—A_ willow. Turdoides. Turdus—A Thrush. Eidos—The 
likeness or resemblance of any thing. 
I am exceedingly happy in being able to give a figure of 
the present species as a new British ‘bird, having received 
information from Mr. Chaffey, of Dodington, Kent—information 
which may be most implicitly relied on—that one was killed 
in Kent on the 4th. of May, 1853, by the side of a pond 
near Sittingbourne, by Mr. G. Thomas, of that place. 
The Great Sedge Warbler is exceedingly abundant in 
Holland, and frequents also the low flat lands of France to 
the shores of the English Channel, so that it is anything 
but surprising that one should have found its way across, a 
‘Pathfinder’ perhaps for many another, or still more probably, 
a follower of many others which may have come over in 
previous years and have been overlooked. 
Its food consists of insects—the smaller dragon-flies, gnats, 
and others. 
This is considered a delightful Warbler, from whence its 
specific name, as approximating in the excellence of its tones 
to those of the Thrush. Its notes are hurried, but loud and 
rich. 
The nest is located among the stalks of reeds. 
The eggs are five in number, obtuse, greenish white, spotted 
with black and ash-colour. 
Male; bill, brown, darkest along the upper edge and at 
the tip; over the eye is a white stripe. Head, crown, neck 
on the back, and nape, uniform light brown; chin, throat, 
and breast, white, delicately tmged with brown; back, light 
brown. Wings, brown; tail, light brown; legs and toes, 
light brown. 
The female does not differ appreciably from the male. 
