80 THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



night. On listening to the sound, we found it proceeded 

 from a plantation of young firs immediately to the west 

 of the garden, where the bushy trees about three or four 

 feet in height, interspersed with numerous tufts of tall 

 cocksfoot and other grasses, afforded such ample concealment 

 to the bird that we could not obtain a view of it. Its trill 

 was heard there every evening afterwards, until the end of 

 the first week in June, when it ceased. 



Having learned that Mr, John Barrie, son of Mr. 

 Barrie, gamekeeper, Preston, had obtained a Grasshopper 

 Warbler in that neighbourhood, in July 1888, I called on 

 him at Preston, on the 12th of the following month, when 

 he showed me the bird, which I found to be of this 

 species. He has favoured me with the following notes 

 regarding his experience of this Warbler : — " On the evening 

 of the 6th of July 1888, 1 happened to be in a young planta- 

 tion of Scotch firs, about five feet high, which grow among 

 deep heather on the top of the hill between Hoardweel and 

 Drakemyre Moors, when I heard a peculiar whirring sound. 

 On the following night I went up earlier and waited, but 

 nothing was heard until about eight o'clock, when the same 

 sound again reached my ears, but not so loudly as on the 

 previous evening. As the night advanced the noise grew 

 louder, and although it seemed to proceed from a spot close 

 to the place where I stood, I had to walk fully thirty yards 

 before I saw the bird which produced it. The bird was 

 sitting in the centre of a young Scotch fir, and I watched it 

 begin its song, which it commenced in a low key, and 

 which gradually rose higher until it reached a certain pitch, 

 when it stopped. The bird did not feed between its songs ; 

 it simply hopped about, or, if disturbed, flew to a short 

 distance and again began its note, I then shot the bird, 

 in order to determine the species." As Mr. Barrie has 

 informed me that he heard several other Grasshopper 



