52 WILLOW-WREN. GRASSHOPPER LARK. 



which may be heard a mile. (Edicnemus is a 

 most apt and expressive name for them, since their 

 legs seem swollen like those of a gouty man. After 

 harvest I have shot them before the pointers in 

 turnip-fields. 



I make no doubt but there are three species of 

 the willow-wrens 1 ; two I know perfectly, but have 

 not been able yet to procure the third. No two 

 birds can differ more in their notes, and that con- 

 stantly, than those two that I am acquainted with-; 

 for the one has a joyous, easy, laughing note, the 

 other a harsh loud chirp. The former is every 

 way larger, and three-quarters of an inch longer, 

 and weighs two drachms and a half, while the 

 latter weighs but two ; so that the songster is one- 

 fifth heavier than the chirper. The chirper (being 

 the first summer bird of passage that is heard, the 

 wry-neck sometimes excepted,) begins his two 

 notes in the middle of March, and continues them 

 through the spring and summer till the end of 

 August, as appears by my journals. The legs of 

 the larger of these two are flesh-coloured ; of the 

 less, black. 



The grasshopper lark began his sibilous note in 

 my fields last Saturday 2 . Nothing can be more 

 amusing than the whisper of this little bird, which 

 seems to be close by, though at an hundred yards' 

 distance ; and, when close at your ear, is scarce 

 any louder than when a great way off. Had I not 

 been a little acquainted with insects, and known 



1 Sylvia trochilis, S. sibilatrix, and S. Mppolais, are the 

 species found in Great Britain. Mr. White afterwards dis- 

 covers three distinct species, but may probably confound 

 S. hortensis, the greater petty-chaps, as one of them. 

 W. J. 



2 Sylvia locustella, Lath. Grasshopper warbler, SELBY'S 

 Ornith.W. J. 



