110 SYLVIAD^. 



fowler, wiug their way to southern lands. It is thought 

 that the autumnal flocks are partially composed of birds 

 on their way from high latitudes, which stop to recruit 

 their strength on the South-downs previously to final 

 emigration. 



THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



SALICARIA LOCUSTELLA, 



Upper parts light brown, with a tinge of green, and presenting a spotted appear- 

 ance, owing to the centres of the feathers being darkest ; tail long, rounded at 

 the extremity and tapering towards the base ; under parts whitish brown, the 

 breast marked with darker spots ; feet and toes light brown. Length five and 

 a half inches ; breadth seven and a half. Eggs reddish white, closely speckled 

 with darker red. 



As long ago as the time when a stroll of five-and-twenty 

 miles fatigued me less than a journey of ten does now 

 — when I returned from my botanical rambles with tin 

 boxes, hands and pockets, laden with stores of flowers, ferns, 

 and mosses, my homeward path often, led me through a 

 certain valley and wood on the skirts of Dartmoor, known 

 by the names of Bickleigh Yale and Fancy "Wood. It often 

 happened that twilight was fading into gloom when I 

 reached this stage in my wanderings — the last of the 

 evening songsters had hushed its note ; for this county, 

 beautiful as it is, offers not sufficient attraction to the 

 Nightingale ; yet I never passed this way under such 

 circumstances without feeling myself compelled to stop 

 once and again to listen to the monotonous whir of what 

 I had been told, and what I believed to be the note of the 

 large green grasshopper, or locust. Monotonous is, per- 

 haps, not the right word to use, for an acute ear can detect 

 in the long unmusical jar a cadence descending sometimes 

 a semitone, and occasionally almost a whole note ; and it 

 seemed besides to increase in loudness for a few seconds 

 and then to subside a little below the ordinary pitch ; but 

 whether this was the eff'ect of the imagination, whether 



