SYLVIIN.t. 



89 



THE GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER. 



LocusTELLA nAvia (Boddaert). 



This Warbler owes its trivial name to a rapid trilling song, which 

 somewhat resembles the chirping of the grasshopper or the mole- 

 cricket ; but in many parts of England it is also known as the 

 ' Reeler,' from a fancied similarity to the noise of the old-fashioned 

 implement used by wool-spinners, or of the running-out of the 

 line on a fisherman's reel. The bird arrives from the south about 

 the second half of April, departing in September ; and between those 

 months it is of tolerably general distribution in suitable localities 

 throughout England and Wales ; being often supposed to be rarer 

 than is really the case, owing to its skulking habits. Fens and 

 partially reclaimed land are favourite situations, but heaths, commons, 

 and tangled hedge-rows are also frequented, while the moist 

 shoulders or ' dips,' near the summits of some of our highest hills, 

 such as the Cheviots, are situations to which it seems to be partial ; 

 in fact Northumberland and Durham are two of the counties in 

 which it is abundant in some summers. In Scotland we trace 

 it, in gradually diminishing numbers, as far as Arisaig, below the 

 Sound of Sleat, and, across that water, to the Isle of Skye. It is 

 found almost all over Ireland. 



The Grasshopper-Warbler is only a rare visitor to Heligoland, 

 and is hardly known to cross the Baltic, but in Russia it is found as 

 far north as St. Petersburg. Over the greater part of Europe it 

 seems to be generally distributed, although seldom common ; but it 



