Grasshopper and Reed Warblers 699 



is smooth in front, being composed of only two entire longitudinal plates (booted) ; 

 the nostrils are clear of the line of the forhead, the tongue non-tubular, and 

 the wings comparatively short and broad ; the tail contains ten or twelve feathers. 

 While some of the Warblers are quite sedentary and seem, indeed, incapable of 

 protracted flight, the majority of them are highly migratory, certain of them 

 extending their migrations far and wide. Thus the Barred Warbler (Sylvia 

 nisoria) is found in summer from southern Sweden east to the Ural and south 

 to the Rhine and in winter in central Africa, and the Siberian Whitethroat 

 (S. affinis) occurs in western Siberia, north almost to the limit of trees, and 

 winters in India and Ceylon. The Sylviida are mainly insectivorous, but they 

 also subsist on minute mollusks and to a limited extent on fruit. They fre- 

 quent a great variety of situations, such as groves, fields, reedy marshes, and 

 rice fields, while some spend much time on the ground or skulking through 

 grassy or bushy cover. Their notes are also of great variety, some possessing a 

 very clear and sweet though often plaintive song, others, as the Willow Warblers, 

 a decided trill, others a rather shrill whistle, while still others, as the Grass- 

 hopper Warblers, "have a peculiar cricket-like note." Of their nesting habits 

 we will try to give some exposition in the following accounts of such typical 

 members as may be selected for notice, but with so great a number of species 

 it will only be possible to choose a few of the better known or more interesting. 



The Grasshopper Warblers (Locustella), of which there are nine species, take 

 their name, as suggested above, from their peculiar notes, which are neither song- 

 like nor even bird-like, but resemble the monotonous stridulation of some in- 

 sect. They are very shy, wary birds, frequenting reed beds, thorny thickets, and 

 wet cover of all sorts, and rarely exposing themselves to view. They have a 

 soft plumage mostly of russet-brown coloration, an exceedingly short outer 

 primary, and a very much rounded tail. One of the best-known species is the 

 European Grasshopper Warbler (L. ncevia) of northern, central, and southern 

 Europe, whence it extends to central Asia, wintering in North Africa. It is 

 found though somewhat locally in suitable situations throughout the British 

 Islands, arriving from the south about the middle of April and frequenting 

 bush-covered localities in both swampy and dry places. It is extremely shy 

 and not often seen, but may be recognized by its continually repeated notes, 

 which are often heard at night as well. It feeds on insects of various kinds, 

 which it seeks amongst the foliage of bushes or secures on the wing. The nest, 

 a deeply cup-shaped affair of grasses, mosses, etc., is placed on the ground and 

 carefully concealed among grasses or tangled bushes; the five to seven eggs are 

 rosy white spotted with reddish brown. 



Reed Warblers. Closely allied to these, but having a much less rounded 

 tail, are the Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus), of which upward of thirty species 

 are known. They are plain olive-brown or russet-brown plumaged birds, of 

 very shy disposition, frequenting reed beds, marshes, and wet situations generally, 

 concealing themselves in the densest tangle of vegetation on the slightest attempt 

 to observe them. Their ordinary notes are rather harsh and querulous, but 

 during the nesting season many of them have quite a sweet and very persistently 



