5 oo PERCHING BIRDS. 



otf her eggs, creeping away through the undergrowth with the stealth and rapidity 

 of a mouse. The eggs are pinkish white freckled with darker reddish brown. The 

 adult male has the upper-parts olive-brown with dark centres to the feathers, 



GRASSHOPPER, RIVER, AXD SAVl'S WARBLERS (§ Hat. sizi-.l. 



while the chin and centre of the belly are white, shading into huffish brown on the 



breast and flanks. 



_ Among the finest of European songsters is the river-warbler 



River- Warbler. . ^ . 1 *> 



(L.jiii rmfihx) of Eastern Europe, which spends the summer months on 



the shore of the Elbe, the Danube, and other large rivers, where it frequents thickets 



and dense undergrowth, building a cup-shaped nest of dr\ r stems. The eggs are 



greyish white, spotted with reddish brown. The song for which the river warbler is 



remarkable has been compared to the chirping of grasshoppers : during the early 



hours of the day the bird sometimes sings in exposed situations, but under ordinary 



circumstances skulks in the most impenetrable thickets. Both sexes have the 



