GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 287 



about two feet ; all of which he was obliged to take away 

 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 1837, 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, but is not included 

 in the Catalogue of the Insessorial Birds of that country 

 obligingly supplied me by my friend William Thompson, 

 Esq. of Belfast. In a direction north of London, this 

 species is seen in Suffolk, Norfolk, several parts of York- 

 shire, in Cumberland, Northumberland, 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 Edinburgh 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. 



