158 Midland Village: Railway and Woodland. 



Great was my astonishment when I saw only a 

 few yards from me a little olive-brown bird creep- 

 ing through the saplings, which I knew at once 

 to be the Grasshopper Warbler. I then took up 

 a fixed position, the little bird after a minute or 

 two proceeded to do the same, and for some time 

 I watched it with my glass, as it sat on a twig 

 and continued to utter its reel. It was only about 

 ten paces from me, and the field-glass which I 

 carried placed it before me as completely as if it 

 had been in my hands. What struck me most 

 about it was its long supple olive-green neck, 

 which was thrust out and again contracted as the 

 reel was being produced ; this being possibly, as 

 I fancy, the cause of the strange ventriloquistic 

 power which the bird seems to possess ; for even 

 while I watched it, as the neck was turned from 

 side to side, the noise seemed to be projected first 

 in one direction and then in another. 1 The reel 

 was uttered at intervals, and as a general rule did 

 not continue for more than a quarter of a minute, 



1 Another cause is doubtless the crescendo and diminuendo 

 which the bird uses : see a valuable note in The Birds of Cum- 

 berland, by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson and W. Duckworth. 



