hardly believed but that it had been a locusta whis- 

 pering in the bushes. The country people laugh 

 when you tell them 

 that it is the note 

 of a bird. It is a 

 most artful crea- 

 ture, skulking in 

 the thickest part 

 of a bush : and 

 will sing at a yard 

 distance, provided 

 it be concealed. I 

 was obliged to get 

 a person to go on 

 the other side of 

 the hedge where 



it haunted : and then it would run, creeping like a 

 mouse, before us for a hundred yards together, 

 through the bottom of the thorns ; yet it would not 

 come into fair sight : but in a morning early, and 

 when undisturbed, it sings on the top of a twig, gap- 

 ing and shivering with its wings. Mr. Ray himself 

 had no knowledge of this bird, but received his ac- 

 count from Mr. Johnson, who apparently confounds 

 it with the Regidi non cristati, from which it is very 

 distinct. 



The fly-catcher {Stoparola, Ray) has not yet ap- 

 peared ; it usually breeds in my vine. The redstart 



begins to sing : its note is short and imperfect, but is 



63 



A bird^s nest fouttd. 



