200 INSESSORES. SALICARIA. WARBLER. 



the rapidity of a mouse. In order to obtain specimens, I 

 have been obliged to watch for a considerable time before a 

 distinct view of the individual, and an opportunity to fire at 

 it, could be obtained ; although, during that time, the fre- 

 quent repetition of its remarkable note told its immediate 

 proximity. This note consists of a sort of sibilant ringing 

 cry sometimes repeated for many minutes without intermis- 

 sion, and resembles so exactly the note of the Mole-cricket 

 (Grylla Talpa), as to render it a difficult task to distinguish 

 them ; and probably, as MONTAGU suggests, may answer the 

 double purpose of a decoy-note to these insects, and a song 

 of love and invitation to its feathered mate. In the utter- 

 ance of this note, it appears to possess a kind of ventrilo- 

 quism, as it can cause the sound, at one moment, to proceed 

 from the immediate neighbourhood of the listener, and at the 

 next, as if removed to some distance, and this without any 

 actual change of place in the operator *. As it builds in the 

 closest bramble or furze bushes, the nest is very seldom 

 found, and it remained undescribed till the publication of the 

 Nest, &c. Ornithological Dictionary. It is composed of moss, and the 

 dried stems of the ladies' bed-straw (Galium), and bears a 

 great resemblance to that of the Pettychaps, or the White- 

 Throat, though it is thicker, and more compact in texture. 

 The eggs are four or five in number, of a pinkish-grey, with 

 numerous specks of a deeper tint. The young, when dis- 

 turbed, immediately quit the nest, although but half fledged, 

 trusting, doubtless, to their instinctive power of conceal- 

 ment. 



This bird has been supposed to leave England early in 

 the autumn, as its cricket-like cry is seldom heard later than 

 July or August ; but as this note is presumed to be restricted 

 to a determinate period, viz. the season of pairing, it may 

 perhaps remain as late as its congeners, but unnoticed, from 

 its shy nature, and retired habits. 



* The same effect must have been frequently observed as attendant 

 on the Corn-crake (Gallinula Crex, Lath.\ a bird also very difficult to raise 

 on wing. 



