50 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 
LocusTELLA N&VIA (Boddaert). 
This species is the rarest of the Warblers that nest 
regularly in the county. It is more plentiful in some 
seasons than in others. Mr. J. J. Cash informs us that 
in 1896 he heard several Grasshopper Warblers singing 
in the neighbourhood of Timperley, a district from 
which the bird is usually absent. 
In Wirral the Grasshopper Warbler has been observed 
at Bidston, Bebbington, Puddington,! Liscard,? and 
Wallasey.? In some seasons it is common near Chester. 
Mr. R. Newstead mentions that it breeds every year 
at Ince, Thornton-le-Moors, and Dunham-on-the-Hill ; 4 
and a nest has been found at Upton Throughout the 
Cheshire Plain the bird is very local. The Rev. C. 
Wolley-Dod has never observed it at Edge Mr. N. 
Neave heard the song twice in the valley of the Bollin, 
near Ashley, during the spring of 1890; and Coward 
heard a bird in the same valley close to Bowdon in 
1898. Mr. F. Nicholson informs us that he has 
frequently heard the Grasshopper Warbler in the last- 
named district, and in the neighbourhood cf Dunham 
Massey in former years. Other localities where we 
have noted it are Rostherne, Pickmere, Northenden, 
and Dean Row, near Wilmslow. Nests have been taken 
several times in the osier-beds at Gatley Carrs. We 
have no records for the Hill Country, but the bird has 
been reported from the meadows at the confluence of 
1 Brockholes, op. cit. p. 6. 2H. E. Smith, op. cit. p. 244. 
3 T. Cooke, zn lit. 4 Dobie, op. cit. p. 290. 
