286 SYLVIAD^E. 



distinction. The rounded form of the tail, the outer 

 feathers being much shorter than those in the middle, 

 and the partiality of these birds to moist situations, par- 

 ticularly conspicuous in the Sedge and the Reed Warblers, 

 appear to separate them from the Sylvan Warblers. I 

 have therefore adopted the generic name and characters 

 proposed for them by Mr. Selby. 



The Grasshopper Warbler, so called from its very pecu- 

 liar and almost incessant cricket-like note, is a visitor 

 from the South, which comes to this country for the 

 summer, and is first to be heard and occasionally seen 

 about the middle of April, and leaves us again in Septem- 

 ber. In its habits, it is shy, vigilant and restless, secreting 

 itself in a hedge bottom, and creeping along it for many 

 yards in succession, more like a mouse than a bird; seldom 

 to be seen far from a thicket, a patch of furze, or covert of 

 some sort, and returning to it again on the least alarm. 

 During the breeding season, when bushes and shrubs are 

 clothed with leaves, it is difficult to obtain a sight of 

 this bird ; yet, when near its haunt, its note rings on the 

 ear constantly, and, like that of other Aquatic Warblers, 

 may be heard about sunset particularly, and sometimes 

 even during the night. The food of the Grasshopper 

 Warbler is small snails, slugs, and insects. 



Unless the old birds are closely watched and seen carry- 

 ing materials for building or food to their young, the nest 

 is very difficult to find. One discovered by Mr. R. R. 

 Wingate of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who " watched the 

 bird to the distant passage on the top of a whin-bush by 

 which it entered and left the nest, was built at the bottom 

 of a deep narrow furrow or ditch, overhung by the prickly 

 branches of the whin, and grown over with thick coarse 

 grass, matted together year after year, to the height of 



