70 A BIRD COLLECTOR’S MEDLEY. 
charming spots round Twyford—the triangular meadow at the end of the 
ruined wall. The place is a veritable bird paradise, and, indeed, within two 
hundred yards of its centre I have observed every species of bird that is to 
be met with in the meadows, save only the Green Sandpiper—a very rare 
visitant, which I have seen once beside the river, on the far side of the 
village. It is no wonder that the spot is such a favoured one. Surrounded 
on every side by water, the base is fringed with an osier bed, the natural 
domain of numerous Reed and Sedge-Warblers; and in the same shelter 
the Reed-Bunting also builds her nest. 
Seated on a convenient stile, I have often looked in vain for the Marsh- 
Warbler, not without some faint hopes, too, of an Aquatic, but so far I 
have never had reason to suspect the presence of either bird. Once, at least, 
has this osier bed re-echoed the “ chirring”’ note of the Grasshopper- Warbler, 
and on another occasion I followed the bird some distance along a neigh- 
bouring hedge, and noted especially the mouse-like creeping so often referred 
to in the books. The bird appeared much less rufous than the other 
Warblers—dark, but bright yellow olive, I should have called it, while a 
further means of identification was the absence of any distinct stripe above 
the eye. I have also met the Grasshopper-Warbler twice much nearer 
Winchester, and again near the large river beyond Twyford; and I believe 
that it breeds, though sparingly, in some of the dense undergrowth with 
which these meadows abound. I once had the chance of watching this 
Warbler’s vocal efforts from a few yards off with glasses, and it was a 
strange sight indeed. The mandibles were kept wide open and motionless, 
the tongue appeared to be motionless also, though it may have been moving 
too quickly for the eye to follow. The “chirr’’ was very faint to begin with, 
and seemed to start in the pit of the stomach and to increase in volume as 
it worked upwards. It struck me that this comparatively sudden change 
from a low note to a loud one may perhaps have given rise to the oft-stated 
theory that the bird is possessed of ventriloquial powers. 
At the back of the osier bed runs the river, and a small waterfall hard 
by isa great place for all the common Wagtails, and more than once I have 
seen a Sandpiper running nimbly about on the mass of decaying water- 
plants which is usually floating at its foot. On the banks of the two streams 
which bound the other sides of the meadow there is a fine combination of 
trees and bushes. The former can nearly always produce a Creeper and 
some Flycatchers, and not seldom a Wryneck or Nuthatch, while the Green 
and Greater Spotted Woodpeckers have been known to visit them at times, 
and once in winter I came upon a Great Grey Shrike. Rarely is the note 
