GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 105 



hedges, so much so that on a fine evening, I have at one 

 time listened to at least a dozen, and have heard their 

 cries even until the goatsucker and the bat flitting 

 about, on noiseless wings, announced the close of day." 

 That these birds are not at the present time thus 

 plentiful in the localities above alluded to I have had 

 many opportunities of ascertaining, and though occa- 

 sionally heard in the neighbourhood of this city and 

 in many parts of the county, where large woods, inter- 

 sected with runs of water or thick old-fashioned hedge- 

 rows afford sufficient shelter; their great stronghold, 

 together with the allied species, is decidedly the district 

 of the broads. There, large tracts of fresh water com- 

 municating with the navigable rivers, are surrounded 

 by the most luxuriant marshes, covered, during the 

 summer, with long tangled grasses and innumerable 

 wild flowers. Reed beds on every side bordered with 

 green sedge, line the water's edge, the treacherous soil 

 admitting of no heavier footsteps than those of moorhens, 

 rails, and coots, thus forming a retreat, better suited 

 than almost any other in the kingdom, for those marsh 

 warblers, which, from their local and distinctive habits, 

 have been classed by Selby under the genus Salicaria. 



The desire to obtain some Norfolk specimens of 

 this bird, of which I had never seen more than two 

 or three examples in the hands of our bird-stuffers, 

 induced me, in the summer of 1852, to pay several 

 visits to one of our smaller broads. Many fruitless 

 trips began to try my patience, when, at last, on a 

 still summer's afternoon, when scarcely a breath of 

 wind stirred the feathery tops of the reed, I heard, for 

 the first time, the singular creaking note of this wary 

 songster. Finding it impossible even then to make 

 him break cover, I told the broad-man, who was with 

 me, to pay attention to the note, since, his employment 

 causing him to be early and late on the water, he was 

 p 



