28 



GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



their bodies. The eggs, five, six, or even eight in 

 number, are oval in shape, and of a pale greenish- 

 blue colour, sometimes nearly white. 



A curious story is told of a pair of these birds which 

 built their nest close to the portico over the hall door 

 of a house in Denbighshire, in 1843. After the 

 young were hatched a swarm of bees prevented the 

 old birds from entering the hole, and finished up by 

 stinging all the young ones to death. On the return 

 of the Flycatchers the following year, they were again 

 attacked by the bees, whereupon they left the spot 

 for ever and built elsewhere.* 



GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



LOCUSTELLA LOCUSTELLA. 

 Family Passerid^. Sub-family Sylviin^. Genus Locus- 



TELLA. 



Cricket Bird. 



A summer visitor, scarce all over the British Isles, 

 but pretty evenly distributed. It is most difficult to 



* Annals and Magazine of Natural History, March, 1845, 



