GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 297 



piecemeal before he succeeded in gaining the prize. The 

 nest was composed of coarse dried grass, and contained 

 five beautiful white eggs, closely freckled with carnation 

 spots." 



The Grasshopper Warbler is found within a few miles 

 north of London, and also in Surrey. A nest brought me 

 in May, 1 837, containing five eggs, was cup-shaped, about 

 four inches across over the top, formed externally of coarse 

 grass, and lined with finer bents within. This bird some- 

 times lays as many as seven eggs, eight lines long by six 

 lines in breadth, of a pale reddish white colour, freckled 

 all over with specks of darker red. I have seen five or six 

 sets of the eggs of the Grasshopper Warbler which did not 

 differ either in colour or marks. 



Besides the counties immediately round London, the 

 Grasshopper Warbler has been observed to visit Hamp- 

 shire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, and 

 Wales. It was considered also as a visitor to Ireland by 

 Montagu and the late Mr. Templeton, and is now included 

 in the History of the Birds of that country, by my friend 

 William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast. In a direction 

 north of London, this species is seen in Suffolk, Norfolk, 

 several parts of Yorkshire, in Cumberland, Northum- 

 berland, and Durham, where, according to Mr. Selby, it 

 frequents low shrubby underwood in moist situations. 

 Mr. Rennie, in a note to White's History of Selborne, 

 mentions having seen and heard this species near Edin- 

 burgh and in Ayrshire. On the European Continent it 

 frequents during summer the central and southern parts, 

 but is not very numerous. It is rare in Holland, where, 

 M. Temminck says, it frequents the sides of rivers. In 

 Italy and in Sicily it is observed on its passage in the 

 spring only. 



The beak is brown ; the base of the under mandible 



