THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 345 



habits require to be more carefully studied ; and when that 

 has been done, and an arrangement of birds founded on their 

 structure, haunts, and habits, comes to be formed, it will pro- 

 bably be found advisable to drop the name, both parts of 

 which are calculated to mislead. The white-throat warbler 

 nestles in a manner somewhat similar ; and has some ana- 

 logous habits, but the form and character of the two birds 

 are quite different : the shape of the body in the white-throat 

 is well suited for long flights ; that of the Dartford warbler 

 is the reverse. Barnes Common is not the worst place in the 

 vicinity of London to search for these local birds.* 



THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER (Sylvia loCUStella). 



Though this bird is called a warbler, and has latterly been 

 classed with the aquatic warblers, it is not, if names and clas- 

 sifications are to have any meaning, either the one or the 

 other. It does not warble, or, so far as observation has gone, 

 utter any sound save a hissing chirp, something similar to 

 that of the grasshopper or the mole cricket, whence it has 

 got the name of the former of these insects. Neither is it an 

 aquatic bird, though it may sometimes be heard in thick 

 bushes near water. Hedges and brakes are its favourite re- 

 sorts ; and its nest is usually hidden in the very closest bushes 

 upon dry places. Its tail is wedge-shaped in the same man- 

 ner as that of the aquatic warblers ; but the wedged tail is 

 not an aquatic character, but one which adapts the bird to 

 glide easily through thick foliage. The dipper, which is much 

 more aquatic than any of the warblers, as it feeds in the 

 water, has the tail square ; and the aquatic warblers have 

 theirs wedge-shaped, to adapt them, not to the water, but to 



* We have often seen the Dartford warbler on Barnes common, 

 and on similar furze- clad commons in Surrey. It is perhaps less rare 

 than is generally supposed, but from its peculiar habits it easily eludes 

 observation. M. 



