Its song consists of four or five plaintively uttered notes, repeated five or six times in succession. The nest is generally a very compact structure, and in Western Australia is formed of the soft tops of the flowering part of the reeds, and the thin skin-like coating of the reed-stalks, but occasionally of fine swamp-grasses, always lined with feathers; in some instances two large feathers are made to meet over the opening, which is near the top of the nest, and thus protects the inside from cold or rain: it is attached to two or three upright reeds about two feet from the surface of the water. The eggs, which are laid during the months of August and September, are four in number, nearly eight lines long and six lines broad; they are of a fleshy white, freckled and streaked all over, particularly at the larger end, with purplish red; in some instances large obscure blotches of reddish grey appear as beneath the surface of the shell. The sexes present no difference in size or colour, and there is scarcely any variation in specimens from Van Diemen’s Land, Swan River and New South Wales. Stripe over the eye white; all the upper surface brown, the centre of the feathers being dark brown; secondaries brownish black, margined with buff; tail pale reddish brown, with dark brown shafts; under surface grey, passing into black on the flanks and vent; each feather of the breast with a very minute line of dark brown down the centre; bill and tarsi fleshy brown. The figures are of the natural size. [Illustration: ACROCEPHALUS AUSTRALIS: _Gould_. _J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._ ] ACROCEPHALUS AUSTRALIS, _Gould_. Reed Warbler. _Reed Warbler_, Lewin, Birds of New Holland, pl. 18.