70 GEASSHOPPEE WAEBLEE. 



Its stridulous note, from whence its name, strikingly 

 resembles the chirruping sound of the large green grasshopper, 

 or rather locust, to be heard so loud and shrill in the southern 

 counties in the fine summer evenings. It is often continued, 

 particularly in the earlier portion of the year, for two or 

 three minutes without cessation, and may be heard at a 

 considerable distance. Farther on in the season it is most 

 heard at night, but is not continued in general later than 

 July or August. The note is faint at its first commencement, 

 but it 'vires acquirit eundo,' and gradually becomes louder 

 and louder, till it is audible at a considerable distance. It 

 is suspended on the slightest alarm, and the bird vanishes 

 into its cover, from whence, when the danger has passed, it 

 emerges again to utter its chirping cry from another bush. 

 At times they utter it in the air, hovering over the bush 

 which contains their nest. It has been suggested that the 

 object of this note may be to decoy the large grasshoppers, 

 who may mistake it for the call of their own species. In 

 the earlier part of the day it sometimes sings perched on 

 the top of a twig, and shivering its wings. 'Nothing,' adds 

 Gilbert White, 'can be more amusing than the whisper of 

 this little bird, which seems to be close by, though at a 

 hundred yards distance, and when close to your ear is scarce 

 any louder than when a great way off.' This ventriloquistic 

 power is certainly very remarkable, but in many cases the 

 sound has, in all probability, proceeded from a Grasshopper 

 Warbler of the insect species. 



The nest, of a cup shape, is formed in a rather firm manner 

 of grass, with sometimes a little moss, lined with finer portions 

 of the same. It is difficult to find, owing to the careful 

 habits of the bird, and is placed on the ground, and has 

 been met with at the foot of a small bush by the road side; 

 it is completely hidden in the middle of some large tuft, 

 through which there is no entrance but such as the bird 

 threads for herself, creeping along like a mouse to and into it. 



The eggs are from five or six to seven in number, of a 

 pale reddish white colour, freckled all over with specks of 

 darker red; they seldom vary much. 



The young soon quit the nest on being disturbed, trusting 

 by instinct to their habitual powers of concealment. 



Male; weight, about three drachms and a quarter; length, 

 five inches and nearly three quarters; bill, dusky brown, the 

 base of the under mandible paler than the other parts, inclining 



