NESTING-SERIES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 157 



No. 58. GRASSHOPPER- WARBLER. (Locustella naevia.) 



This Warbler, also known as the " Heeler," owes its trivial names to 

 a rapid trilling song, which somewhat resembles the chirping of the 

 Grasshopper. It arrives from the south about the middle of April, 

 departing in September, and between those months is found in suitable 

 localities throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and in gradually 

 diminishing numbers towards the north of Scotland. Fens, commons, 

 thick hedge-rows, and small copses are its favourite haunts, but owing 

 to its skulking habits it is rarely seen, and thus often supposed to be 

 rarer than is really the case. The nest is placed on the ground, and 

 well hidden among thick herbage. It is approached by one or more 

 mouse-like runs, often of considerable length, and along these the bird, 

 when alarmed, creeps back to her eggs. These are from five to seven 

 in number, pale pinkish-white, thickly speckled and zoned with darker 

 reddish-brown. 



Hampshire, June. 



Presented by Dr. J. E. Kelso fy Lieut. F. Hodge, R.N. 



No. 59. TREE-CREEPER. (Certhia familiaris,) 



This resident species is common, and generally distributed throughout 

 the British Islands. Its long curved claws and stiff-pointed tail- 

 feathers enable it to ascend the trunks and branches of trees with ease 

 and rapidity, as it searches for the spiders and other insects on which it 

 principally feeds. The nest, made of roots, grass, and moss, and lined 

 with wool, feathers, etc., is usually concealed in a crevice under partially 

 detached bark, or in a cleft in the bole of a tree ; but sometimes it is 

 placed under the eaves of a shed or dwelling, or in some other suitable 

 situation. From six to nine white eggs, spotted with light red and 

 pale lavender, are laid in the end of April. Two broods are reared in 

 the season. 



1. Norfolk, June. 



Presented by Lord Walsingham. 



2. Hampshire, May. 

 Presented by Sir Edward Shelley, Bart. 



No. 6O. NUTHATCH. (Sitta caesia.) 



A common resident in the southern and central districts of England 

 and in parts of Wales, but rare towards the north, and only met with 



