THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. Ill 



the difference was produced by a "rising and hilling of the 

 breeze, or whether the musician actually altered its note 

 and intensity of noise (or must I call it music 1 ?), I could 

 never decide. As long as I fancied the performer to be 

 an insect, I was inclined to believe that one of the first 

 suppositions w#s correct ; for it seemed hardly possible 

 that the purely mechanical action of an insect's thighs 

 against its body could produce variety of sound as well 



THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



expect varied intonations from a mill-wheel or saw-pit. 

 Attentive observation, and the knowledge that the noise 

 in question proceeded not from the exterior of an insect, 

 but from the throat of a bird, has led me to form another 

 conclusion. I am not surprised at my having fallen into 

 the error ; for the song of this bird is but an exaggeration 

 of the grasshopper's note;, and resembles the noise pro- 

 duced by pulling out the line from the winch of a fishing- 



