502 NATURAL II I STORY OF BIRDS. 



The third bird in the same cut is the sedgc-warblcr {Acrocephahis shcenolxeniit), 

 one of the commonest sjiccics of tiiis genus in Eiirojie, breeding among sedges and 

 reeds, or in the M-illows of marshes, and by the water-side as far north as Tromso in 

 Norway. In contradistinction to the following group, the reed-warblere, as they are 

 called genericaliy, are possessed of considerable powers of song, while the name of 

 the grasshojiper-warblers (^LocustcUa) clearly indicates the character of their musical 

 gifts. Three European s])ecies are figured in our cut, all of which inhabit marshy 

 districts and reed-beds. Their habits are said to be very skulking and partly noc- 

 turnal. My own experience in Kamtscliatka with a near ally of L. ncevia, viz., 

 X. hendersonii, is very different, and deserves a place here. 



It was, as I thought, under rather peculiar circumstances that I made the first 

 acquaintance of the gra.ssliopper-warbler. From what I liad read about the habits of 

 allied species, and conjectured from the manners of Acrocephalus ochotensis, I listened 

 for tliis bird about and after sunset, wherever willows were abundant, in the marshy 

 valley bottoms. I recollected the many jwctical accounts of ornithological enthusiasts 

 waiting in the wet swamps for the moon's rising over the white vapors, when the males 

 of X. ncevia would commence their strange chirping, and, invisible to the bewitched 

 naturalist, mock round him like mischievous elves, now i)itching their ventriloquous 

 notes to the left, now to the right, until the gunning ]>oet, in bewilderment and des- 

 pair, sends a shot at random in the direction from whence the creaking thrills seeto to 

 proceed. So I tried ]p.atiently to get enchanted, bewildered, water-soaked, and mos- 

 quito-bitten, too ; but no LocitMella ! 



It was a very hot day in the siunmer of 18^*2, in fact the last day of June, that I 

 took an ornithological morning ramble to a broad valley just behind the rounded hills 

 ujjon the sloping base of which Petropaulski is situ.ated. The weather had been dry 

 and warm for a considerable time; the vegetation was longing for rain, and the soil 

 was gray and dusty. At last I determined to return ; the tropical rays of the sun at 

 noon had silenced all birds, and the only living being in the neighborhood not seeking 

 the cool shade was the mosquito-phobious naturalist. Suddenly I was struck by the 

 vigorous and rather protracted chirp of a heat-despising cricket. Something in its 

 note led me to wish to get hold of the ] producer, so I cautiously proceeded in the 



direction of the sound. Zirrrrr ! But who describes my astonishment when I 



found that the sujii>osed cicada w.as a small bir<l facing the sun from the top of a 

 broken and dead birch ! As he did not mind the noise I made when breaking my 

 way through the five feet high grass, if I oidy took care to stop whenever he inter- 

 rujited his curious love-song, his fate was soon sealed. It is needless to say that 1 

 now became an .attentive listener to the grating sounds of tJie locusts, and half an hour 

 later I was rewarded by another male, which I shut from the outer branches of a leaf- 

 clad Jietula ermani. 



The Old Worhl warblers (Si/h<ia), as we are o))liged to term them in contradis- 

 tinction to our American nine-])rimaried warblers, are very interesting on account of 

 their geographical distribution. It is very generally asserted that the western Paljp- 

 arctic regiim, or the Eurojiean sub-region, have no characteristic birds of their own. 

 The warblers iiroi)er, however, seeni to have their headquarters in the region surround- 

 ing the Mediterranean, while quite a number inhabit central and northern Europe 

 without extendins; into Siberia, though sever.al southern s])ecies breed as far east as 

 Turkestan. Most of the migratory species winter in Africa. The |)late facing page 

 496 illustrates two southwestern species, Agrobatea galactotes, the rufous warbler, 



