104 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



SALICARJA LOCUSTELLA (Latham). 

 GEASSHOPPEE WAEBLEE. 



Macgillivray, in his notes on the Grasshopper 

 Warbler ("British. Birds/' vol. ii., p. 489), gives 

 the following local account of this species, as written 

 by his son from personal observations : " During a 

 short residence in Norfolk, from the middle of June 

 to the beginning of October, 1838, I had almost 

 daily opportunities of hearing the singular note of 

 this interesting bird, which is nowhere, perhaps, 

 more abundant than in the neighbourhood of Norwich, 

 where I saw it alive for the first time. * * * * 

 The note, if once heard, can never be afterwards 

 mistaken for the sound of a grasshopper or cricket, 

 however striking the resemblance ; besides, the length 

 of time for which it is continued, provided the bird be 

 not disturbed, is much greater. Thus, on one occasion, 

 while watching some pike lines by the margin of a deep 

 pool, I heard the trill of the grasshopper chirper 

 emitted from a neighbouring hedge for at least twenty 

 minutes, during which time the bird appeared to have 

 been sitting on the same spot. I cannot state the 

 period of the arrival of this bird in the Eastern counties, 

 but I observed it as late as the end of September, up to 

 which period I regularly saw and heard my little friends 

 in a lane through which I passed every second day on 

 my way to the bath-house at Heigham. Although it 

 frequents hedges alone, in so far as I have observed, I 

 once heard two crying in the gardens attached to the 

 Bishop's Palace, at Norwich. * * * On Costessey 

 common, a few miles from Norwich, I never met with 

 it, although it is abundant in all the neighbouring 



