country, arriving in April and leaving again in September;
but on one occasion a single specimen was observed near
High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire in winter. Immediately
on its arrival it takes to thick cover by the waterside,
and is much more frequently heard than seen ; though
it may occasionally be observed flitting on the uppermost
twigs of the willows it inhabits, giving rapid utterance to a
succession of notes as it flies from one branch to another.
White of Selborne appears to have first made Pennant acquainted
with this species, and with his usual acuteness detailed
the habits of the bird, particularly remarking its power
of imitating the notes of other birds, and its singing at night.
The observations of others in various localities have confirmed
the accuracy of his remarks ; and the Sedge Warbler,
in the situations it frequents, may be heard throughout the
day, and frequently during a summer night, imitating the
notes of various birds in a somewhat confused and hurried
manner; and should he desist for a few minutes’ rest, it is
only necessary to throw a stone or a clod of dirt among the
bushes, and he will immediately commence a series of repetitions,
but seldom quits his covered retreat.
Worms, slugs, and various aquatic insects are the food of
this bird.
The nest of the Sedge Warbler has frequently been confounded
with that of the Reed Warbler; but it is usually
placed much nearer the ground, and seldom depends on reeds
for its support. I t is frequently placed at or near the bottom
of a patch of thick coarse herbage. One nest now before
me is composed externally of moss at the bottom ; the sides
are of grass and coarse bents; the inside rather deep, and
thickly lined with hairs. The eggs are five or six in number,
eight lines long by six lines in breadth, of a pale yellowish
brown colour, slightly mottled, and sometimes streaked
with darker brown. These, according to Mr. Jenyns, are
hatched towards the end of May or the beginning of
June.
The Sedge Warbler, as before observed, is neither so
local nor so limited in numbers as the species which here
precedes it, or that which follows it.
The marshy banks of the Thames, on either side of the
river where beds of willows or reeds abound, are well stocked
with this bird ; although from the wet and muddy nature of
the ground they are not very easy to get at. In the southern
and western counties it occurs in Hampshire, Dorsetshire,
Devonshire, Cornwall, and in Wales; and from Mr. Wm.
Thompson of Belfast, I learn that it is a regular summer visiter
to the North of Ireland. It occurs also in the marshes
of Essex, in Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland,
and Lancashire, and was traced by Mr. Selby in
Sutherlandshire to the northern extremity of the island : “ it
was found pretty generally distributed along the margins of the
lochs, particularly where low birchen coppice and reedy grass
abounded. The well-known babbling notes of this wakeful
little bird proclaimed its presence in many unexpected situations.”
Mr. Hewitson saw it in Norway; M. Nilsson records
it as a summer visiter to Sweden ; and Pennant, in his
Arctic Zoology, says it frequents Russia and Siberia even to
the Arctic Circle. I t inhabits all the marshes and sides of
rivers in Holland; is a common bird in Germany, France,
Provence, and Italy, which last country it leaves early in October
and returns in April. Mr. Strickland saw this species
at Smyrna in December.
The beak is brown; from the gape to the eye a brown
streak ; irides brown ; from the top of the eye a broad streak
of yellowish white passes backward over the ear-coverts ; the
ear-coverts dark brown; the top of the head streaked longitudinally
with dark and light brown, and thus mixed is darker
than the plumage of the nape, forming a hood: back and
♦