COVERT WARBLERS 99 



the tangle that flourishes in such localities. 

 Moor-hens, rails, and snipes used to run there ; 

 the farmer's son springed them ; and that wet 

 lane, with all its rough coarse tangle, was one 

 of the favourite haunts of the "reeler." 



Here, too, we have listened to the song of 

 the woodlark, after the tree-pipit had done his 

 trilling for the day, and have compared the 

 notes of the fern-owl with those of the grass- 

 hopper-warbler near to us. One was like the 

 rattle of a pike-winch going out at speed, the 

 other was like the soft winding-up of a roach- 

 reel. Grasshopper- or cricket-like the note or 

 trill has been called, but there is a wide differ- 

 ence, you will find, if each has been heard near 

 to the other. Even the mole-cricket little 

 frisky pigs will half plough a moist meadow up 

 in order to get these, if permitted, mole-crickets 

 being to them what sweets are to children has 

 a different note to the reeler. The nest and 

 eggs of this bird I saw two days before my 

 article was commenced ; they had been placed 

 in the tangle of a very old orchard. 



Insects form the principal food of this species, 

 which in one respect differs from the Dartford 

 warbler. The latter bird remains with us all 

 the year round, the grasshopper-warbler is a 



