n E u r o p e , the Great Reed W a r b l e r Acrocephalus arundinaceus ranges widely a n d breeds south to the M e d i t e r r a n e a n , extending also to northwest Africa. In Asia, it breeds t h r o u g h the USSR east to about85 C E; farther south, it is replaced in the Near East and from Iran to the western Himalayas by the C l a m o r o u s Reed Warbler A. stentoreus, a n d in Iraq by the m u c h s m a l l e r , s l e n d e r - b i l l e d Basra R e e d W a r b l e r A. (arundinaceus) griseldis. T h e Basra Reed W a r b l e r was described by H a r t l a u b , not from Asia but from a specimen collected by Emin Pasha at Nguru, some 200 km west of D a r - e s - S a l a a m , T a n z a n i a ( H a r t l a u b 1891). T h e b i r d was subsequently found in Lower Iraq (Ticehurst 1920, 1922), to which its breeding appears to be restricted a n d where Vaurie (1959) gave