3H4 



PASSERES. 



SYTA'IID.E. 



SYL vni)^. 



AcROCP]PHALUS N^vius (Bocldaert * ). 

 T HE GRASSHOPPER- WAKBLEE. 



Sdlirayia locitstella +. 



The Geasshopper- Warbler, so called from its very 

 peculiar song, which resembles the incessant chirping noise 

 made by some of the orthopterous insects — grasshoppers 

 and crickets — is a visitor from the south, coming to this 

 country for the summer, and is first to be heard or seen 

 about the middle of April, leaving us again in September. 

 In its habits, it is shy, vigilant and restless, secreting itself 

 in the thickest vegetation, a patch of furze, a sedge-fen 

 or a hedge-bottom, and creeping along for many yards in 

 succession, more like a mouse than a bird ; seldom going- 

 far from covert of some sort, and returning to shelter on the 

 least alarm. Except on its first coming, when the cocks, 

 awaiting the arrival of their mates, display themselves more 

 than is their wont, it is at all times difficult and, in the 

 breeding-season, when bushes and shrubs are clothed with 



* Motacilla na'via, IJoddaert, Table ties Plaiiclie.s Eiiluiiiincez, p. 35, no. /iSl, 

 fig. 3 (1783). 



t Si/Iria lociiKt'-Uii, Latliani, liid. Oiii. ii. |., f.l.'', (UDn). 



