118 OUR natrt: soxgstebs. 



of Selborne : — " Nothing can be more amusing 

 tlian the whisper of this little bird, wliicli seems 

 to be close by, though at a hundred yards' distance, 

 and when close at your ear is scarcely any louder 

 than when a great way off. Had I not been a 

 little acquainted with insects, and known that the . 

 grasshop})er kind is not yet hatclied, I should have 

 hardly believed but that it had been a locusta 

 whispering in tlic bushes. The country jxiople 

 laiigli when you tell tlu'in it is the note of a bird." 



The greenish and brownish shades of the 

 plumage arc well adai)ted to the bird's desire of 

 concealment. It builds its nest in the very 

 thickest and most secluded spot of the underwood, 

 making it very compact and substantial, and 

 taking for its materials the dried grass stems and 

 the green moss. The eggs are very pretty, being 

 of a })inkish grey, speckled with a deeper tint. 



Our bird comes to us from the warmer regions 

 of the South in April, and quits us in September. 

 It seems to be more general in the counties around 

 London than in any other part of Britain. 



Those who are used to ramble among the lands 

 made green and luxuriant by the silver streams 

 which meander among them, must have remarked 



