GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 93 



were listening to a Nightingale, until a local naturalist 

 scathingly remarked " It were nobbut a bothering Betty ! " 



The sites chosen for the nest are as frequently removed 

 from, as in the neighbourhood of, water : I have found it 

 in hedges and shrubs several feet above the ground, while 

 there is one instance of a nest at an elevation of ten feet, 

 and the experience of other county naturalists is similar ; 

 eggs at Bempton have been reported as late as August ; and 

 a nest at Harome, near Helmsley, contained young on the 

 4th August 1888. In the Natural History Journal 1877, 

 there is mention of a nest in a long swinging piece of bramble, 

 far from any water ; in the same Journal a clutch of eggs 

 is described, three being white with scarcely traceable black 

 spots, and a fourth much paler than usual. ^Ir. Harold 

 Watson of Redcar has a clutch of the scarce salmon pink 

 variety, found in the Esk Valley in the first week of June 1892. 



The vernacular names are numerous : Seg Bird in the 

 Huddersfield neighbourhood {Zool. 1848, p. 2290) ; Sedge 

 Bird in Cleveland (Graves, 1808) ; Sedge Chat, Sedgechatter, 

 and Windlestraw, at Ackworth ; Willow Wren at Huddersfield ; 

 Willow Sparrow at Wilsden and in the West Riding ; Grey 

 Bird in Arkengarthdale ; Betty near Settle ; Nightsinger 

 near Sedbergh ; Mock Nightingale in Cleveland and the 

 North Riding ; Thorn Warbler in east Cleveland ; Willow 

 Chit in the western Ainsty ; Chitty Prat in southern Holder- 

 ness. While Small Straw at Skelmanthorpe, Huddersfield, 

 and Straw Small at Wilsden and in the Aire Valley, are terms 

 applied to the nest. 



GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



Locustella naevia {Boddaer/). 



Summer visitant ; local ; thinly distributed, and varying in 

 numbers in different years. 



In considering the question of the earliest reference 

 to the Grasshopper Warbler as a county bird, priority of 



