THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER 
LOCUSTELLA NA&VIA 
Loca names in surrounding counties : 
Status IN British Avirauna: A local and capricious 
summer visitor, generally distributed over England and 
Wales, the south of Scotland, and Ireland. 
Rap1AL DistRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 
Pauw’s: The Grasshopper Warbler is found in various 
parts of the Metropolitan area, but from its excessively 
skulking habits it 1s very often overlooked. It is local 
certainly, but is a regular summer visitor to the gorse- 
covered commons and heaths at no very great distance 
from the City. Perhaps its nearest haunts are at Wim- 
bledon ; and Coombe Wood is said to be another. ‘Then 
it is recorded as a summer visitor to suitable spots in the 
Hendon, Kingsbury, Harrow, and Hampstead districts ; 
Wembley, Osterley, and Croydon neighbourhoods are 
others. It frequents suitable areas in the Kentish Crays, 
and across the river is a regular visitor to Epping, and is 
said to haunt Dagenham Lake, near Ilford. Doubtless 
there are many tangled bits of cover where the Grasshopper 
Warbler skulks through the summer undetected. ‘There 
are many such rural spots within London’s limits where 
the bird’s song might be mistaken for the sibilant sound 
of the grasshopper, as even in districts where this Warbler 
is absolutely common it only shows itself exceptionally 
and for fleeting moments. 
‘There are few other British birds so difficuit of observa- 
tion as the Grasshopper Warbler, and the ordinary bird- 
lover may well be excused if he fails to meet with it in 
spots it is absolutely known to frequent. Its favourite 
haunts are dense thickets and mazes of brushwood in 
small woods or on commons or by the roadside, as well 
as tangled hedge-bottoms, ditches, and the luxuriant 
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