64 THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER (Sibilatrix locustclla). 

 Sometimes called the Grasshopper Chirper, Cricket Bird, 

 or Sibilous Brakehopper. About five inches and two- 

 thirds long ; plumage of the upper parts of a dull olive 

 brown, with oblong dusky spots, making it look undulated 

 or waved ; the lower parts pale yellowish brown. It is a 

 slenderly formed and elegant, although plainly coloured 

 bird, remarkable especially for its peculiar cry, a shrill 

 sibilous or shaking sound, like that uttered by the mole 

 cricket. This bird arrives in the south of England about 

 the middle of April, and spreads very gradually northward, 

 not reaching the neighbourhood of Edinburgh until the 

 beginning of May. Montagu says it is not a plentiful 

 species, but, probably, appears less so by its habit of con- 

 cealing itself among furzes, and thick hedges, discovering its 

 place of concealment only by its singular, cricket-like note, 

 which is so exactly like that of the mole cricket as scarcely 

 to be distinguished. We have found it in Hampshire, in 

 South Wales, and in Ireland, but nowhere so numerous as 

 on Malmsbury Common, Wiltshire, to which place the males 

 come about the second week in April. At this time only 

 they expose themselves upon the top branches of the 

 furze, and are continually making their singular chirping 

 notes, their only song. As soon as the females arrive, which 



