THE GREAT REED WARBLER.] of bird architecture. It is a real work of art, because, in its perfect suitability for its purpose, it shows an amount of calculation that few men would think a bird capable of. [Illustration] Whoever is acquainted with the nature of marshland, and the reed beds that border it, knows that on the smooth surface of the water, the breeze, the wind, the storm have free course, and can at times bluster and rage. Everyone also knows that the lightest breezes moves the leaves of the reeds, bends their stems and sets the whole wilderness of them in motion, like the water itself. The wisdom of Nature has placed this bird of the reed beds here, and so formed it that it could live nowhere else. Therefore it must build its nest in this unstable-looking spot and can do so in perfect safety; so that it can lay its eggs, hatch them, tend the young birds which are at first blind, feed them and bring them up until they are fledged and like their parents. It is no small undertaking to build among the bending stems a nest which will afford security in calm weather and also in storm! If the bird fastened it to one stem, and the wind were to come, the fastenings would soon be torn away, and all destroyed. What then does the bird do? It chooses three or four stems at about equal distances standing near to each other. On these it darns and knits its nest in the shape of a high, eastern, fur hat reversed: attaching it also with tough grass to the reed in such a manner that it can give way on the stalk when it waves in the wind, so that the stalk cannot tear the nest. The cup of the nest is deep, narrowing a little at the upper edge to prevent anything falling out when moved by the wind. In this nest the Reed Warbler lays five or six eggs of pale green with darker speckles, which are hatched in fourteen days. It is a perfect work of art. The Great Reed Warbler is 8 inches in length, that is, an inch less than a Thrush; and its form is not unlike that of the Thrush. The upper side is brown, shading into rust colour; over the eye is a lighter stripe, and round the ears the plumage is also a lighter colour. The underparts are whitish, tinged on the sides with yellowish clay colour. Beak like that of the Thrush, rather strong, slightly curved, pointed. Legs strong, suited for clinging. The nest is treated of separately. [Illustration: The Reed Bunting.]