94 THE SMALLER BRITISn BIRDS. 



1 should ba,ve hardly believed but that it had beau a lurnstu whispering 

 in the bushes. The country people laugh when you tell them that it 

 is tlie note of a bird/' 



On the European Continent this species is found durinij' the summer 

 in the central and southern parts, but is nowhere very abundant. It 

 is sometimes seen on the banks of rivers in Holland, but is rare in 

 that country. It arrives in the south of England about the middle 

 of April, and gradually spreads northwards, reaching the district around 

 Edinburgh in the early part of May. Within a few miles of London 

 this bird has been noticed, and in most of the counties bordering on 

 the English Channel, also in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Yorkshire, 

 Cumberland, Northumberland, and Durham. Montagu says it is es- 

 pecially plentiful on Malmsbury Common, in Wiltshire. In a few 

 instances it has been seen in Ayrshire and Galloway, in Scotland, and 

 is plentiful in South Wales and Ireland. 



In its habits the Grasshopper Warbler is remarkably shy and 

 vigilant, especially during the breeding season, so that in places 

 where it is moderately abundant it is not often seen; it rarely ventures 

 far from some thielvLt or clump of bushes, and secretes itself on the 

 slightest alarm. Yarrell says it will creep along for many yards in 

 succession under a hedge, more like a mouse than a bird. Its food 

 consists of insects, slugs, and worms; it is supposed that its peculiar 

 cry may serve as a decoy to grasshoppers, who mistake it for the call 

 of one of their own kind. 



The nest of this bird is cunningly concealed in hedges and thickets, 

 and very diffieult to find. Mr. Weir thus relates how he discovered 

 one at Wallhouse, near the top of Bathgate Hills. "I was watching 

 a pair of Stonechats feeding their young, when I observed a little 

 bird, which I had never before seen, rise in the air again and again 

 in pui'suit of flies. I immediately ran to the spot to get a nearer 

 view of it, and after a good deal of searching at length discovered 

 its nest. It was placed in the middle of a clump of very tiiick whins, 

 and completely overhung by their prickly branches. So cunningly was 

 it concealed, that I was obliged to beat the female out of it several 

 times before I could find it out." The nest was rather large, and 

 composed of stems and blades of grass, lined with finer portions of 

 the same material. It contained six beautiful white eggs, freckled all 

 over with carnation spots. 



In form this bird is slender an<l elegant, but its plumage is plainly 

 coloured. Tho upper parts of the male are dull olive brown, each feather 

 having a dusky spot in the centre. Tlie beak is brown, and tlie irides 

 hazel. The wing and tail feathers are dark greyish brown, edged with 



