GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



coarse dried grass, and contained five beautiful white eggs, 

 closely freckled Avith carnation spots." 



The Grasshopper Warbler is found within a few miles 

 north of London, and also in Surrey. A nest brought me in 

 May 1837, containing five eggs, was cup-shaped, about four 

 inches across over the top, formed externally of coarse grass, 

 and lined with finer bents within. This bird sometimes lays 

 as many as seven eggs, eight lines long by six lines in 

 breadth, of a pale reddish white colour, freckled all over with 

 specks of darker red. I have seen five or six sets of the eggs 

 of the Grasshopper Warbler which did not differ either in 

 colour or marks. 



When the breeding season is over, these birds are more 

 frequently to be seen. A correspondent in the Magazine of 

 Natural History says, " I observed several birds of this spe- 

 cies in the neighbourhood of Eastbourne, in July and August 

 1835. They did not appear peculiarly shy ; on the contrary, 

 when disturbed, they frequently rose into the air, hovering 

 above my head, and at the same time repeating their cricket- 

 like note. I might have shot a considerable number, as they 

 often perched, several together, on the tops of some bushes. 

 They were then in moult, but uttered their usual sibilant 

 cry : I often heard them in the afternoon. In the last week 

 of August I observed one cast on shore by the waves ; this 

 had probably been overtaken in its attempt at migration by 

 a contrary wind which accompanied a thunder-storm, and, 

 unable to withstand the tempest, had yielded to its fury. I 

 did not hear these birds afterwards." 



Besides the counties immediately round London, the 

 Grasshopper Warbler has been observed to visit Hampshire, 

 Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, and Wales. It 

 was considered also as a visiter to Ireland by Montagu and the 

 late Mr. Templeton, but is not included in the Catalogue of 

 the Insessorial Birds of that country obligingly supplied me 



