5°° 



PERCHING BIRDS. 



off 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, 



L 7/ 



m i 



GRASSHOPPER, RIVER, AND SAVl'S WARBLERS (§ liat. size) 



River-Warbler. 



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

 breast and flanks. 



Among the finest of European songsters is the river- warbler 

 (L. fluviatilis) 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 dry 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 



