PERCHING BIRDS. 71 



Though always to be met with in the two first named 

 tracts, it is never seen except in pairs, and these but 

 thinly distributed, though most frequent on the warren 

 at Oxton. This, traversed by the road leading from 

 Ollerton to Nottingham, is a lonely, quiet spot, and I 

 have watched there with much interest these pretty but 

 wary birds. From being accustomed to see persons 

 passing along the road, they are not quite so shy as 

 usual, and will allow any one to approach within a few 

 yards before taking flight. Perched on a grass-covered 

 molehill or a large stone or clod, they seern always on 

 the watch, turning the head quickly from side to side, 

 while the body is carried very erect. They hop rapidly, 

 but their flight is low, and is maintained for very short 

 distances. Their movements while catching flies and 

 other insects are very lively ; but they are continually 

 occupying for a few moments some little prominence, 

 and again flitting about after their food. I have once 

 or twice seen them perch on the top of the walls of turf 

 that surround the warren, but I never knew them to do 

 so on either bush or tree. The wheatear is compara- 

 tively a silent bird, its faint warble being seldom heard, 

 and its call-note, which it utters while hopping or rather 

 running about, consisting of a single " chat." 



The Grasshopper Warbler \S. locustella) is more 

 plentiful than it appears to be. It is so fond of conceal- 

 ment, and so shy and watchful in its habits, that even in 

 the places which you know it frequents it is difficult to 

 catch a glimpse of it; and whenever this is accom- 

 plished, it seems, from the way in which it creeps or 

 rather glides through a bush or hedge, as Mr. Yarrell 

 justly remarks, "more like a mouse than a bird." I 

 have seen it so repeatedly in the furze arid underwood 



