30 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



to say that the Grasshopper Warbler another 

 very interesting species is by no means an un- 

 common if a local bird. We mention it specially 

 here, because the spot most favoured by its 

 presence best known to us is the gorse-co.vered 

 side of a lovely sheltered coombe running inland 

 from Torbay up towards the tiny village of 

 Marldon. Here, curiously enough, its numbers 

 vary considerably from year to year. We have 

 strolled up this quiet valley soon after dawn on a 

 calm morning in early summer, and heard half-a- 

 dozen birds reeling in concert from the gorse, 

 occasionally getting a peep at one or other of 

 them as they ran up the bushes in a mouse-like 

 manner, or paused for a few fleeting moments on 

 a topmost spray. In other seasons perhaps not 

 more than a single bird would be heard at a time. 

 The whirring song, reeled off in spells of a minute 

 or more in duration, is certainly the most curious 

 avine music that the English woodlands contain. 

 It may be described as a continuous tremulous 

 trill, like the running down of clock-work, and 

 has nothing to recommend it but its curious and 

 novel monotony. Unlike the sedentary Dartford 

 Warbler the present species is migratory, arriving 



