GRASSHOPPER LARK. 47 



sects, and known that the grasshopper kind is not yet 

 hatched, I should have hardly believed but that it had been a 

 locusta whispering in the bushes. The country people laugh 

 when you tell them that it is the note of a bird. It is a 

 most artful creature, sculking in the thickest part of a bush ; 

 and will sing at a yard distance, provided it be concealed. I 

 was obliged to get a person to go on the other side of the 

 hedge where it haunted ; and then it would run, creeping like 

 a mouse, before us for an hundred yards together, through the 

 bottom of the thorns ; yet it would not come into fair sight : 

 but in a morning early, and when undisturbed, it sings on the 

 top of a twig, gaping and shivering with its wings.* Mr. Ray 



* This curious species, the brake-locustelle (salicaria-losusiflla dumeticola} , is known in 

 Surrey by the appellations " cricket-bird" and " rattlesnake-bird " both far more expressive 

 than the commonly received name in the books, "grasshopper-warbler." It is not rare (as has 

 been said) within a few miles of the metropolis ; but may generally be found amid the furze and 

 tangled bushes upon heaths and commons, often where the former is clipped, and stunted, and 

 intermingled with hassocky tufts of grass. Sometimes, too, 1 have noticed it in woods, and occa- 

 sionally in broad tangled hedges ; but its principal habitat is upon open and extensive furze-brakes, 

 where it by no means particularly affects (as some have said) the lower and more damp situations, as 

 1 have repeatedly found it in the dryest places. An allied species, the salicaria-locustella fluviatilist 

 frequents more the margins of streams and rivulets (like the true reedlings), and is common along 

 the reedy banks of the Danube ; and I much suspect that a third will be found to exist in the 

 sylvia certhiola of Temminck's Manuel, but this I have not seen. Neither of the latter are found 

 in Britain. They differ in many respects from the typical salicariae, or reedlings) with which they 

 have commonly been associated) , particularly in the structure of the feet and claws, which are 

 peculiar. The wings are shorter and more rounded, the tail longer, more cuneiform, and flexile, 

 and the rictus is without the array of bristles which in those birds is rather conspicuous. The 

 markings of the plumage also are of a distinct character, somewhat approximating to those of 

 the pipits and other ground birds, whence, indeed (the rather lengthened hind claw being also 

 taken into consideration), we find Mr. White and other naturalists of the last generation styling 

 our British bird a lark, from which genus it is widely removed. Our species has no note but the 

 very singular one mentioned in the text (which that of fluviatilis resembles), and which, like the 

 characteristic chattering song of the true reedlings, may be heard at all times of the night, but is 

 chiefly emitted in the morning and evening, when all is quiet around. It is a very peculiar, con- 

 tinuous, sibilant kind of thrill, beginning always very low, and becoming in about a minute loud 

 enough to be heard at a considerable distance, at which time, whenever the bird turns its head, 

 a sort of ventriloquizing effect is produced, as is likewise observed in the meadow crake and 

 various other species that utter similar rattling or croaking sounds. It is a remarkably shy and 

 hidling bird, at least during the breeding season, and at times is very difficult to obtain a sight 

 of; but in early spring, before pairing, it may be noticed at any hour of the day perched con- 

 spicuously on one of the highest twigs of a bush, shivering and thrilling most pertinaciously. I 

 have never seen one rise upon the wing, but a correspondent of the Magazine of Natural His- 

 tory for February, 1836, observes of several that he saw " among the furze and bramble-bushes, 

 on the extensive bed of shingle in the neighbourhood of Eastbourne, on the Sussex coast, in July 

 and August," that " they were then in moult, but uttered their usual sibilant cry. I often heard 

 them in the afternoon. They did not appear peculiarly shy ; on the contrary, when disturbed, 

 they frequently rose into the air, hovering over my head, and at the same time repeating their 

 cricket-like note. I might have shot a considerable number, as they often perched, several 

 together, on the tops of the bushes. In the last week in August, I observed one cast on shore by 

 the waves. This had probably been overtaken in its attempt at migration by a contrary wind 

 which accompanied a thunder-storm, and, unable to withstand the tempest, had yielded to its 

 fury." The last is interesting, as showing that they leave the country at the period when their 

 cry first ceases to be heard ; it having been supposed by Mr. Selby and others that they remained 

 for some time longer silent among the bushes. The nest is situate within the closet furze or 



