by my friend William Thompson, Esq. of Belfast. In a
direction north of London, this species is seen in Suffolk,
Norfolk, several parts of Yorkshire, in Cumberland, Northumberland,
and Durham, where, according to Mr. Selby,
it frequents low shrubby underwood in moist situations. Mr.
Rennie, in a note to White’s History of Selborne, mentions
having seen and heard this species near Edinburgh and in
Ayrshire. On the European Continent it frequents during
summer the central and southern parts, but is not very
numerous. It is rare in Holland, where, M. Temminck says,
it frequents the sides of rivers. In Italy it is observed on
its passage in the spring only.
The beak is brown ; the base of the under mandible paler
in colour than the other parts : the irides hazel: the top of
the head, back, and wings, greenish brown ; the centres of
the feathers darker brown, producing a spotted appearance:
the feathers of the tail graduated and of a uniform brown,
the ends triangularly pointed. Chin, throat, breast, and
belly, pale brown, spotted with darker brown on the neck
and breast; under tail-coverts pale brown, streaked along the
centre with darker brown; legs, toes, and claws, pale brown.
The whole length five inches and a half. The wings
short: from the carpal joint to the end of the longest primary,
two inches and three-eighths; the first feather very
short; the second longer than the fifth, but not so long as
the fourth ; the third the longest in the wine1.
Females do not differ much from males on the upper parts
of the body ; but the under parts are destitute of the brown
spots on the breast, and are of a uniform pale brown or buff
colour, as described by Mr. Heysham of Carlisle from a specimen
obtained in that neighbourhood.
1NSESSORES. SYLVIADJE.
DENTIROSTRES.
TH E SEDGE WARBLER.
Sylvia salicaria, Sedge Warbler, P enn. Brit. Zool. vol. i. p. 517.
Motacilla ,, ,, ,, M ontagu, Ornith. Diet
,, ,, ,, Bird, B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 253.
Curruca, ,, ,, Warbler, E lem. Brit. An. p. 69.
Salicaria phragmitis ,, ,, Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 201.
Sylvia ,, ,, ,, J enyns, Brit. Yert. p. 106.
Salicaria ,, ,, ,, G ould, Birds of Europe, pt. xiii.
Sylvia ,, Bec-jin phragmite, T emm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p. 189.
T h e S e d g e W a r b l e r , the second example of this small
aquatic division, is more numerous as a species than either of
the other two, and is generally to be found during summer
in most thick patches of reeds or willows in marshes, or on
the low sides of rivers, or on islands, where from the loose
and soft nature of the soil aquatic herbage grows thick and
strong. The Sedge Warbler is a summer visiter to this