MAY ON THE MOORS 83 



first meeting" with a new species ; and least of all with this, 

 whose extraordinary song" is totally dissimilar from that 

 of any other bird in Europe — a resonant rattling flow of 

 sibilant sound resembling rather the voice of a reptile or 

 an insect — most of all, of a grasshopper, but we had no 

 grasshoppers there. That song could never have escaped 

 our attention had it ever been sung there before. On May 

 15th we found its nest with four eggs, and subsequently 

 observed other pairs in that neighbourhood ; but never 

 again, except in that one year (1882), either before or 

 since. 



Again at Houxty, in 1904, a grasshopper- warbler 

 rejoiced my ear by starting his sibilations on May 10th. 

 On the 27th, accompanied by Mr Howard Saunders 

 and Mr F. C. Selous, we found its nest with two eggs 

 in a young plantation. It was built in a low bush, 

 about a foot from the ground, and completely covered 

 above with long dead grasses. This bird never laid 

 more than the two eggs first found, and although un- 

 molested, did not return the following spring nor in 1906. 

 'Tis always adieu, not au revoir, with this tantalising 

 species. 



On Ilderton moor, Cheviot, where we had the shooting 

 in 1893, we found grasshopper-warblers in May, nesting 

 among long heather far out on the open moor, miles 

 from tree or bush. Subsequently, I have observed them 

 above Alwinton in Coquetdale, and at various points, 

 both in the lowlands and on the heathery hills of 

 Cheviot. 



The song of the grasshopper-warbler, though unmis- 

 takable, is hard to describe. There is a lack of all "lilt" 

 in it — an endless running monotone, unsatisfying, like 

 the course of the shameless rolling stone, so exquisitely 



