The Gkasshopper Warbler. 125 



found with fresh eggs about the middle of June, but it would seem probable, in 

 such cases, that some mischance had befallen the first nest. 



Lord Lilford gives an amusing account of his search after this bird and its 

 nest ; he says : — " The onl_y close observations of this bird which I have hitherto 

 been able to carry out, were made in the early summer of 1856, on a rough piece 

 of furze and thorn-grown grazing-land adjoining Dartmoor, in North Devon : there 

 I found the bird very common. I should say that there must have been at least 

 six or more pairs frequenting an area of perhaps twenty acres, but in spite of 

 their abundance and constant song, it was only b}' close watching in the early 

 morning that I was able to procure specimens for m}- collection : the male bird 

 at that time will now and then creep out to the top of a furze-bush ' reeling ' 

 or singing, and if undisturbed perhaps remain for a minute or more, but on the 

 slightest alarm will disappear into the thickest covert he can find, and run like 

 a mouse through the most tangled herbage from one thicket to the next, never 

 taking wing unless absolutely forced to do so. In vain did we search for a nest, 

 though armed with a bill-hook, and protected by garden- gloves, we plunged into 

 masses of thorns, furze, nettles, thistles, and other defensive vegetation into which 

 we had after patient watching traced one of these birds, tearing up the grass by 

 handfuls, lopping away live and dead furze, on hands and knees, morning, noon, 

 and evening ; day after day we went home with perforated skins, perspiring and 

 unsuccessful." Birds of Northamptonshire, vol. i, p. 123. 



I could not resist quoting this; it is so true an account of the discomforts to 

 which the zealous birds'-nester cheerfully submits ; and, after all, I am not sure 

 that part of the joy of this branch of collecting does not consist in the successful 

 battling through thorns and briars, even though, after the fray, you return home 

 with both clothes and skin in rags. 



As a cage-bird I should not recommend this species. 



