FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59  
60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   >>   >|  
tle that may buzz through its cage, for the active little bird will have it in a moment, and after a few sharp snaps of the beak there is quite an end of the bluebottle. Daddy long-legs, too, are favourite morsels, and after a little beating about disappear down the bird's throat--legs, wings, and all, without any difficulty. The indigestible parts are afterwards cast up in pellets in the same manner as with Hawks. I have never seen the nearly-allied and very similar Marsh Warbler, _Acrocephalus palustris_, in Guernsey, but, as it may occasionally occur, it may be as well perhaps to point out what little distinction there is between the species. This seems to me to consist chiefly in the difference of colour, the Reed Warbler, _Acrocephalus streperus_, at all ages and in all states of plumage, being a warmer, redder brown than _Acrocephalus palustris_, which is always more or less tinged with green. The legs in _A. streperus_ are always darker than in _A. palustris_; the beak also in _A. palustris_ seems rather broader at the base and thicker. This bird also has a whitish streak over the eye, which seems wanting in _A. streperus._ These distinctions seem to me always to hold, good even in specimens which have been kept some time and have faded to what has now generally got the name of "Museum colour." Mr. Dresser, in his 'Birds of Europe,' points out another distinction which no doubt is a good one in adult birds with their quills fully grown, but fails in young birds and in adults soon after the moult, before the quills are fully grown, and also before the moult if any quills have been shed and not replaced. This distinction is that in _A. streperus_ the second (that is the first long quill, for the first in both species is merely rudimentary) is shorter than the fourth, and in _A. palustris_ it is longer. Though I think it not at all improbable that the Marsh Warbler, _Acrocephalus palustris_, may occur in Guernsey, I should not expect to find it so much in the wet reed-beds in the Grand Mare and at the Vale pond as amongst the lilac bushes and ornamental shrubs in the gardens, or in thick bramble bushes in hedgerows and places of that sort. 36. SEDGE WARBLER. _Acrocephalus schoenobaenus_, Linnaeus. French, "Bee-fin phragmite."--The Sedge Warbler is by no means so common as the Reed Warbler, though, like it, it is a summer visitant, and is quite as local. I did not see any amongst the reeds which the Reed Wa
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59  
60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

palustris

 

Warbler

 
Acrocephalus
 
streperus
 
distinction
 

quills

 

Guernsey

 

colour

 

species

 

bushes


common

 

adults

 

Dresser

 

replaced

 

Museum

 
points
 

Europe

 
phragmite
 

visitant

 
summer

gardens

 

shrubs

 
bramble
 

improbable

 

expect

 

ornamental

 

hedgerows

 

French

 

shorter

 

fourth


rudimentary

 
longer
 

Linnaeus

 

places

 

Though

 

schoenobaenus

 

WARBLER

 

difficulty

 

indigestible

 

throat


allied

 

pellets

 

manner

 

disappear

 

active

 

moment

 
favourite
 
morsels
 
beating
 

bluebottle