72 OUR IRISH SONG BIRDS. 



it became motionless, stretched out its neck, and, keep- 

 ing its mandibles continuously open and slightly 

 elevated, commenced its trill again ; then it shuffled 

 about for some seconds, and repeated the strain." 



The Grasshopper Warbler belongs to the aquatic 

 warblers, and therefore is usually found in marshy 

 districts or in thickets on the banks of streams, where 

 it creeps about like a mouse. In the case of the bird 

 heard by Mr. Johns, however, he tells us that it was 

 several miles from any stream. I have but once had a 

 good view of this bird, and that was on the shore of 

 Llangorse lake, in Breconshire, when I visited that 

 locality with my friend and pupil Mr. George Philip 

 Farran, in quest of the Pied Flycatcher. I heard it, 

 however, at Portlaw, and, in company with that ardent 

 naturalist, Rev. W. W. Flemyng, noted as many as five 

 different songs in one evening. On 4th July, 1901, I 

 was greatly pleased to hear the Grasshopper Warbler 

 in an enclosure near the Royal Hibernian School, 

 Phoenix Park. Mr. T. B. Moffat has heard the song 

 in Co. Wexford up to the first week in August. The 

 nest is placed on the ground, and the eggs, five or six 

 in number, are of a white colour, with specks of 

 brownish-red. In its general appearance the bird re- 

 sembles the Sedge Warbler ; but it has no superciliary 

 streak, and has a much longer tail, rounded, and of a 

 " cuneiform character." It is, of course, insectivorous. 



