GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER. 387 



also dry soils, and inhabits indifferently heaths, commons, 

 woods and even enclosures where the hedgerows are tangled 

 and thick enough to afford good hiding-places. The nest, 

 which is built in May, is cup-shaped, about four inches 

 across over the top, formed externally of coarse grass, sedge 

 or the dried stems of some species of Galium, mixed with 

 moss, and lined with finer bents within. This bird lays 

 from five to seven eggs, which measure from '75 to *65, by 

 from '57 to '51 in. and are of a pale pinkish- white, freckled 

 with darker reddish-brown, the markings most commonly 

 dispersed all over the shell, but often collected in a cap at 

 either end or in a belt, while occasionally irregular dark 

 hair-like lines are seen more or less encircling the girth. 



Besides all the counties of England and Wales in which, 

 with scarcely an exception, it has been ascertained by Mr. 

 More to breed yearly, though always local and nowadays 

 nowhere plentiful, the Grasshopper- Warbler has been traced 

 by Mr. R. Gray as a regular visitor to Scotland from the 

 Solway to the Firth of Forth on the east side, and as far 

 northward as Bonaw in Argyllshire on the west. It seems, 

 however, to miss the border counties of Berwick and Rox- 

 burgh, as well as Selkirk. In Ireland Thompson regarded 

 it as being probably a regular summer-bird in suitable 

 localities throughout the island. It is one of the many 

 wayfarers that have occurred in Heligoland, and on the 

 Continent is found in Belgium, Holland and as far north as 

 Sleswick, where it breeds. It does not cross the Baltic, but 

 is distributed throughout North Germany, while further 

 eastward it attains a higher latitude, since Herr Meves 

 procured it near Lake Onega in Russia. Thence it is re- 

 ported as extending across the whole of southern Siberia to 

 the Pacific ; but, as with many other birds, it has possibly 

 been confounded with allied species, of which some five or 

 six have been distinguished. Its southern limits in Asia, 

 supposing it to occur there,* cannot be even approximately 

 given. It was not met with by Canon Tristram in Pales- 



* It has been several times recorded from India, but the Indian specimens 

 examined by the Editor are certainly distinct, and are probably referable to the 



