MIDDENDORFF'S GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER 341 



between the races : ochotensis has slightly darker centers to the feathers 

 of the upperparts, while in pleskei these are lacking, and the back is 

 described as darker without the tendency to russet often shown by 

 the typical race. Yamashina adds that the throat, breast, and belly 

 of pleskei are pure whitish instead of more or less tinged with buffish 

 or brownish. The American specimen evidently belongs to the 

 typical race, but L. o. pleskei is the form whose biology is best known 

 owing to the observations of Japanese workers, on which the account 

 which follows is partly based. 



Locustellas are extremely skulking little birds, frequenting long 

 grass, reeds, and bushy ground, often in marshy or wet places or 

 actually over water, and the present species is typical in this respect. 

 It is described as frequenting willow bushes and thickets in damp 

 places. L. o. ochotensis is described as the characteristic bird of the 

 beds of reed grass at waters on Sakhalin, while in Kamchatka it 

 was found by Stejneger (Ridgway, 1884) "among the high grass and 

 willows which cover the swampy slopes of the mountains with a thicket 

 almost impenetrable to foot and eye" and by Laing (1925) fairly 

 commonly "in the low shrubbery on the more open country" at 

 Petropavlovsk. 



On the Seven Islands of Izu off the coast of Japan Yamashina 

 (1931) describes L. o. pleskei as breeding in places overgrown with the 

 small bamboo Arundinaria simoni. 



Nesting. — B. Dybowski (1883) reports that the species (translation) 

 "arrives the first part of June, constructs an open nest in the herbage, 

 above the ground level, composed of dried grasses and lined with small 

 feathers; lays five eggs and commences incubation the end of June or 

 beginning of July." 



The following is a translation of the description of the nest of L. o. 

 pleskei: "The nest is built on a flat place where Arundinaria simoni 

 grows thickly. It is usually built on several stems of Arundinaria. 

 Occasionally this species builds a nest on stems of hydrangea, which 

 grows among the Arundinaria. The nest is placed at heights of about 

 35-150 centimeters above the ground. It is shaped like a drinking 

 glass; the outer part consists almost entirely of dry leaves of Arundi- 

 naria. On the inside are finely broken up (dunn gespaltene) pine 

 needles, dry bents, fine fibers, etc. The outer diameter is 10-15 centi- 

 meters, the height 8-17 centimeters." 



Eggs. — L. Taczanowski (1882) says of the eggs (translation): "The 

 eggs are different from those of the other Locustellas; they have a 

 ground of a shade almost like that of the eggs of L. lanceolata, but uni- 

 form, without any trace of dark spots; they have only a simple fine 

 blackish vein, surrounding the large end completely or incompletely, 

 otherwise, some present a crown of a little deeper shade, on which I 



