SYLVIAD#. 97 
and wary habits, as well as the localities it inhabits, 
all causing it to be overlooked by even moderately 
attentive observers: it is, however, more readily to 
be recognized by the ear than the eye, as it makes a 
noise very like the grasshopper, whence its name. 
I am told it is not at all uncommon on the banks of 
the Tone, especially between Taunton and Bishop’s 
Hull. 
It is generally aquatic in its habits, frequenting 
wet and marshy situations, where it hides amongst 
the long grass and rushes, and in such situations its 
nest is usually placed; sometimes also it 1s con- 
cealed amongst the thick matted grass and weeds in 
the bottom of a furze or bramble bush: it is made 
of coarse grass and lined with bents.* 
The food of the Grasshopper Warbler consists of 
onats, flies, maggots, grasshoppers and water beetles, 
besides all the various sorts of insects which are to 
be found amongst reeds and other water plants.t 
This bird is about the same size as the better- 
known Sedge Warbler, but slightly exceeds it in 
length. As I have not been fortunate enough to 
obtain a specimen for my collection I have taken the 
following description from Yarrell:—‘ The beak is 
brown, the base of the upper mandible paler in 
colour than the other parts; irides hazel; the top of 
* -Yarrell, vol. 1., p. 296. 
+ Meyer’s ‘ British Birds,’ vol. i1., p. 85. 
K 
