In habit and manner the present species approaches to the former, but is
a much handsomer bird; though not so rare, it frequents the sides of
ditches, ponds, and rivers, like the last species, where it pours forth
its variable diurnal and nocturnal song almost incessantly, on its first
arrival in this country, which is generally the beginning of April,
leaving us again about the middle of September. It builds its nest in a
thicket of reeds, or other tall water-grass, on which it is fastened up
with the webs of caterpillars, similar to that of the former, which is
fastened to the branches of trees, so that no wind or storm can move it.
The song of the present species is somewhat similar to that of the last,
but is more shrill and chattering; some people prefer it to that of the
latter species, but I do not, as it wants some fine deep notes that the
other possesses: it is also an imitative bird, its song being intermixed
with the call of the sparrow and parts of the songs of other birds. Its
food is precisely the same as that of the last species; and in
confinement the treatment for both must be exactly alike.