168 Booth: Nesting of the Grasshopper Warbler. 
Several botanical members of the Bradford Natural His- 
tory and Microscopical Society reported that they had heard 
strange bird notes near to the top of Bingley Park, on May 8th, 
1915, which I immediately recognised as those of the Grass- 
hopper Warbler. I communicated with Mr. Sam Longbottom, 
of Bingley,—whom I knew to be par excellence as a bird- 
watcher, and more particularly so for a man who has his daily 
bread to earn. In the meantime Mr. Longbottom had dis- 
covered the bird, and had commenced his watching, and I 
must acknowledge that I learned more of the life history of 
this species from his notes than I had gathered from all reading 
and from personal observations together. For instance, I 
particularly asked Mr. Longbottom to note the times of ‘ reel- 
ing,’ together with any other notes uttered during incubation, 
and during the feeding of the young. It will be seen that the 
male ‘ reeled’ vigorously on arrival, and until he procured a 
mate ; when it ceased. It occurred again after the first brood 
had safely left the nest, and until a second nest was arranged, 
and finally in a weaker form, after the second brood had safely 
got away. Now compare this with the behaviour of a bird at 
Ben Khydding in tori, that ‘reeled’ continuously for two 
months. I spent the latter half of May, 1911, in Holland; 
so I cannot say when the bird first arrived ; but on my return 
home I immediately detected the note of a Grasshopper 
Warbler several hundred yards away on the edge of the moor. 
Its ‘reeling’ each evening was continuous until I retired to bed, 
and a friend who lived nearer to its haunts than I did, was 
greatly concerned as his dog would keep barking throughout 
the night because of ‘some strange and unknown noise.’ At 
the time I believed that the bird had nested, and searched all 
around for its nest, or a sign of its young; but without any 
success. Now J] am convinced that its continual ‘ reeling ’ 
until the middle of July was the call for a mate that never 
came. In the same year another bird was behaving in exactly 
the same way near to Cononley, in Airedale. From Mr. Long- 
bottom’s observations I feel certain that neither the Ben Rhyd- 
ding nor the Cononley bird nested at all—unless on the very 
unlikely chance of obtaining stray hens at the end of their 
long spell of calling. On this line of argument there may 
very easily be slightly more nesting pairs in any district than 
ornithologists believe to be the case; for from the evidence 
adduced we learn that a Grasshopper Warbler having obtained 
a wife and commenced nesting, practically ceases to ‘reel’ 
and thus becomes almost unobservable excepting at close 
range; whilst the bachelor Grasshopper Warbler still ‘ reels ’ 
incessantly and becomes noticable, notorious and 7s recorded. 
But the chief value of Mr. Longbottom’s observations is the 
proof that this species is double-brooded, and with concise 

Naturalist, 
