THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 81 



Warblers in different parts of the plantation on the evening 

 when he obtained the above-mentioned specimen, it is very 

 probable that they nested there in the summer of 1888. 



This bird is recorded by Dr. Stuart as having occurred 

 in 1880 at Whitehall, in the parish of Chirnside ; also at 

 Hammerhall, in the adjoining parish of B uncle ; and in 

 former years at Ninewells, near Chirnside.^ Mr. Hardy 

 mentions that its note was frequently heard about Penman- 

 shieP and the Pease Dean^ long ago. 



" The note," says Stevenson in his Birds of Norfolk, " if 

 once heard, can never be afterwards mistaken for the sound of 

 a grasshopper or cricket, however striking the resemblance ; 

 besides, the length of time for which it is continued, provided 

 the bird be not disturbed, is much greater. Thus, on one 

 occasion, while watching some pike lines by the margin of 

 a deep pool, I heard the trill of the Grasshopper Warbler 

 emitted from a neighbouring hedge for at least twenty 

 minutes, during which time the bird appeared to have been 

 sitting on the same spot." ■* Yarrell remarks that " in the 

 more marshy parts of England, where the chirping of grass- 

 hoppers and crickets is not a very common sound, this bird 

 has long been known as the Reeler, from the resemblance of 

 its song to the reel used, even at the beginning of the present 

 century, by the hand-spinners of wool. But this kind of 

 reel being now dumb in such districts, the country folks of 

 the present day connect the name with the reel used by 

 fishermen as being that most familiar to them." ^ Seebohm 

 describes the note of this bird as " exactly resembling the 

 note of the grasshopper, except that it is slightly louder, not 

 quite so shrill, and somewhat steadier and more prolonged." *" 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. ix. p. 229. 



2 Ibid. vol. vii. p. 511. = Ibid. vol. i.x. p. 229. 



* Birds of Norfolk, vol. i. p. 104. ^ Yarrell's British Birds, vol. i. p. 385. 



8 Seebohm's British Birds, 1883, vol. i. p. 341. 



VOL. I, F 



