ii2 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



grasshopper warbler, so called from the resemblance 

 his song bears to the grasshopper's churring noise — really 

 it sounds to me more like the noise made by a fishing 

 reel when the line is being run off. They may be some- 

 times heard in Burbage Wood in summer evenings. 

 He is a very interesting bird, and like the corn crake a 

 ventriloquist There are two others which I hardly dare 

 mention, and only do so with bated breath They are 

 not mentioned by Mr. Browne and would not be accepted 

 by ornithologists, because I did not reduce them into 

 possession. One of them, the very rare icterine warbler, 

 I am pretty sure of. He is a small bird very much of the 

 willow wren type, though decidedly larger and distinctly 

 3rellow in the under parts, but he made himself known 

 to me by his very loud note for so small a bird. It is 

 more than 24 years ago, but I remember him well. The 

 other is the likewise very rare orphean warbler which 

 I believe I came across in 1890, but I am not so sure about 

 this as the last, though the amount of white in its coloura- 

 tion distinguishes it from the blackcap, which it some- 

 what resembles. Both these birds occurred in the 

 Castle Hill garden. 



" Of the next family the ' Accentorince,' we have only 

 one species the hedge spanow, who of course has nothing 

 whatever in common with the house sparrow. Of the 

 CinchdcE, of which the only British representative is 

 the dipper or water ousel, we have none, and very few 

 examples have occurred in the county. The next, the 

 ' PanundcB,' is represented by only one species on the 

 Biitish list, the bearded tit, or bearded reedling, called 

 locally the reed pheasant, not on account of his size, 

 for he is no bigger, in fact not so big, as the great tit, 

 but has a very long tail proportionately. It is a bird 

 of the great reed beds of the Norfolk Broads, and is not 

 on our list, though Mr. Browne gives one or two records 

 for the country, but it has never occurred in this district, 

 nor is it likely to do so. The ' Paridce ' comprises the 

 tits, and we have the five given by Mr. Browne. The 

 great tit, the blue tit, the cole tit, the marsh tit, and the 

 charming little long-tailed tit, which makes the most 



