CHAPTER XVIII 

 THE GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER 



THIS shy, mysterious bird, the " razor-grinder," * as he is 

 often called in the Broad district, is oftener heard than seen. 



When the chate is in bloom the grasshopper-warblers 

 come over in small parties, which scatter at once over rush- 

 marshes dotted with islets of sallow, bramble, and reed ; 

 for they are not such water lovers as are the reed and 

 sedge warblers nor are they such musicians. Indeed, 

 unless you be alert, you may hear the earlier homing sedge- 

 warbler, and the later arrivals, the reed-warblers, and not 

 have heard the grasshopper-warbler at all. Yet he has 

 often sung to you (for he arrives between the other two 

 songsters), but you may have thought him some insect, 

 so low and mysterious is the chattering coming from the 

 marshland. By night and day, too, he sings when the days 

 grow long. On the other hand, most people would not 

 know he existed were it not for his song, for he is the most 

 skulking of birds, a mysterious and reserved little minstrel, 

 who shuns publicity. 



But if you know the marshlands, and frequent a marsh 

 of " laid-rush," where brambles and sallows grow in clumps, 

 you may at daybreak and closing-in time hear his myste- 

 rious song ; and if sharp-eyed, you will see him sitting on 

 a bramble spray a few feet from the marsh. But should 

 you approach even at a gallop, he will drop into the stuff 

 like a stone, and you may search in vain, though, if he 

 have dropped into a bramble-bush, and there be two of you 

 with sticks, you may succeed in flushing him, when you 

 will see that he is a bigger, darker, more broad-tailed bird 



* Never " reeler." 



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