328 Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District. 



common than most of the other small warblers this noisy and aggressive 

 little songster makes himself heard in the district from April 17th until 

 August 7th, singing at all hours of the day and occasionally at any hour 

 of the night. Here as elsewhere imaginative listeners have been known 

 to luistake it for the Nightingale, which has only visited us once in the 

 last thirty years. Its nesting haunts, though not confined to, are most 

 frequently amongst low bushes and herbage by river side or swampy mere, 

 but its nest may also be found in a furze bush or pollard willow stump, 

 and sometimes in rushes actually growing in the water. From i to 7 

 feet is the range of height above ground. The nest, measuring 5 ins. in 

 height and 2 ins. in depth inside is made of grass, moss, vegetable-down, 

 feathers, hair, seeds of rushes, roots and herbage stems. Usually five ; 

 sometimes six eggs are laid. Weight, -06 oz. Occasionally a nest is 

 made that somewhat resembles that of the Reed Warbler, having single 

 reeds passing up close to the nest sides though not actually through the 

 nest walls, and I once found a nest with two nettle stems actually passing 

 up through it. 



The Grasshopper Warbler [Lociistella nacvia Boddaert). Heard as 

 early in the year as April i6th, it has not been known to sing later than 

 June 29th. I have no early morning record of its curious note which, 

 however, I have often heard near midnight. The following notes are 

 copied direct from my bird memo' book just as written : ' the song of 

 this bird closely resembles the call of a large grasshopper, but is much 

 more continuous ; it also somewhat resembles a faint pea whistle or the 

 wind blowing through a telegraph wire. The note certainly does rise and 

 fall.' Although often described as being very shy and difficult of approach, 

 that is not my experience. Once, near Scarborough, having heard and 

 seen the bird from a distance of thirty yards, I ver}^ cautiously and slowly 

 crept up to within iwo paces of it whilst it still continued singing or altern- 

 ately preening its feathers and now and again creeping about the low 

 briar bush in which it sat. On a previous occasion in Somerset, under 

 similar circumstances. T crept up quite close to one. Although nesting 

 more or less frequently within the borough boundaries, I have not had 

 the good fortune to find a nest myself. 



*The Hedge-Sparrow {Accentor modiilaris L.). Local name ' Cuddy.' 

 Resident, very common, and an almost daily songster, singing more or 

 less freely in every month of the year. Though its favoured haunts are 

 gardens, shrubberies, hedge-rows and woodland, here it may frequently 

 be seen and heard on the house-tops. I have found its nest containing 

 eggs as early as April nth and young in the nest as late as September 

 5th, but whether these were a first, second or third brood I could i\ot say. 

 Sometimes quite on the ground the nest, more frequently found in a hedge 

 than elsewhere may be placed in furze or other low bushes, brambles or 

 herbage, one was noticed amongst fine moor riishes, another seven feet 

 above ground in a spruce lir. The variety of materials used embraces 

 moss, twigs, wool, dead grass and herbage stems, dead leaves, roots, 

 bark, straw, feathers, f»r and hair. Never more than 6 eggs in a nest, 

 usual weight -07 oz., I have found one weighing as miich as one tenth of 

 an ounce and big enough though not heavy enough to pass for a Cuckoo's. 

 I don't know when the Hedge Sparrow rises, but I have heard his song as 

 late as 8-40 p.m. 



{To be continued). 



o 



We have only just heard that John Waddington, the well-known 

 printer, of Leeds, died some little time ago. At one time he was keenly 

 interested in the work of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, acted as its 

 librarian, and had a seat on the Executive and other Committees. He 

 was especially interested in the lepidoptera. 



Naturalist 



