116 OUR KATnT SONGSTERS. 



rarely seen. It secretes itself in hedge bottoms, 

 winding its way among the interlacing stems of 

 the brambles, of the thick tufts of the furze 

 branches of the 6ommon ; creeping for several 

 yards in succession, more like a mouse than a bird, 

 so that one can rarely get a sight of tlie little crea- 

 ture, whose shar]) shrill notes are, however, echoed 

 far and wide. When Mr. Selby wished to obtain 

 specimens, he was obliged to watch for a consider- 

 able time before he could get a sufficient view of 

 a bird to enable him to fire at it. If approached 

 unawares, it runs along over the gromid, perking 

 up its tail in the most curious manner. 



^lany, however, who have never seen the grass- 

 hopper warbler have heard its remarkable note, 

 particularly about sunset, and even in' the night. 

 It is a long, repeated, shrill, hissing cr}', repeated 

 without intermission, for some minutes together. 

 The bird is most inaptly termed a warbler, for it 

 certainly never warbles at all ; but the peculiarity 

 of its singing is, that it possesses a kind of ventri- 

 loquij^ing faculty, so that its voice scarcely ever 

 seems to proceed from the true direction. It can, 

 at will, send forth its tones to the distance of two 

 or three yards, so that by merely turning romid 



