Alfred Newton

“ In them generally it builds one of the most beautiful of nests, made of the seed-branches of the reed and long grass, wound horizontally round and round so as to include in its substance the living stems of three or four reeds, between which it is suspended at a convenient height above the water, and the structure is so deep that the eggs do not roll out when its props are shaken by the wind. Of very similar habits is the reed-thrush or great reed-warbler, A. arundinaceus, a loud-voiced species, abundant on the Continent but very rarely straying to England. ”

“ The nest of the species is peculiar, placed on the ground and formed of the blades of a species of Glyceria so skillfully entwined as to be a very permanent structure, and it is a curious fact that its nests were well known to the sedge-cutters of the district which it most frequented, as those of a bird with which they were unacquainted, long before the builder was recognized by naturalists. ”

“ The true warblers are chiefly Old World, visiting the southern Old World in winter, but members of the sub-family occur in New Zealand, Polynesia and Panama. Amongst the commonest in England is the well-known sedge-bird or sedge-warbler, Acrocephalus schoenobaenus, whose chattering song resounds in summer-time from almost every wet ditch in most parts of Britain. ”