106 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



by far the most likely to obtain a shot. This man 

 assured me at the time that he had often heard the same 

 " creaking noise" amongst the sedges without imagining 

 that it was caused by a bird. Two days later I received 

 my first specimen, an adult female, and the above, with 

 one exception, is the only occasion on which I have 

 heard this warbler on the broads in the middle of the 

 day. The want of success, therefore, usually attending 

 the search for this species, will be readily explained by 

 the following description of its habits, as observed in 

 our fens during several successive seasons ; and I may 

 add that since 1852, except from one or other of the 

 broads, I have known of but three or four obtained in 

 this county, although I have heard them occasionally 

 on heaths and in hedgerows, at a distance from any 

 water, and have had their eggs from various localities. 

 The same broad-man who procured my first specimen, 

 and from the same marshes, has since obtained many 

 others during the last few years, all of which have been 

 shot between three and six in the morning, or by moon- 

 light as late as ten and eleven o'clock. At these times 

 the grasshopper warbler appears to throw off somewhat 

 of its shyness, continually uttering its loud note, 

 distinguishable at a great distance, and when seen is 

 almost invariably perched on the highest twig of a small 

 bush. If undisturbed it remains "creaking" by the 

 hour together, constantly moving its head from side to 

 side, and if silent may be readily distinguished from the 

 reed or sedge warbler by its sitting more upright, with 

 its tail straight down. When observed on a reed stem 

 (which is very seldom), it is always at the top, keeping a 

 sharp look out, and on the slightest noise it drops like a 

 stone into the thickest cover. In one respect it re- 

 sembles the sedge warbler, preferring the shelter of the 

 smaU bushes on the drier marshes to that of the reed 

 beds, and here, no doubt, the nests are usually placed ; 



