164



Mr. P. F. M. Galloway,



I might have found the bird alive, roasted it up again, and if it had

laid an egg my experience would have been bought without losing

my bird. I must say that this is the greatest surprise in aviculture

I have yet experienced, and treproach myself bitterly for not having

diagnosed the cause of the first illness, and I write this note in the

hope that it may save somebody else from falling into so blame¬

worthy an oversight as to omit to thoroughly examine a sick bird

no matter how apparent the malady or injury. I may add that I

have no doubt that the birds were a true pair and both were adult

birds.



THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER.


Locustella noevia.


By P. F. M. Galloway.


This species is always a scarce one, and has been so ever

since I can remember. It is certainly not through the egg collector,

for the nest is one of, if not the most difficult to finch I have only

found the nest of this species once, and if it had not been that I saw

what I took to be a mouse run along the ground from my foot,

which I found was almost on top of the nest of eggs, I do not-

suppose for a moment that I should have found it then. I am

certain that the reason why this bird is rather scarce is through the

nest being right on the ground, the eggs and young are destroyed

by mice and other vermin.


When this bird first arrives, which is generally about the

10th of April, it may be found in very unusual situations. I have

seen it in a thin piece of hedgerow beside a main road, close to

Caversham, Oxon., where people were passing to and fro at short

intervals, and I got within almost arms length of him, so near that I

could plainly see his throat moving whilst he was reeling loudly.


During the severe snowstorm, on the 25th of April, about

four years ago, I saw one come out of a tuft of grass on a bank and

flutter across the snow on the road and go down into a garden on

the opposite side, in fact it practically tumbled down into the garden,

for it was numbed with cold and half-starved, and I should doubt if

it lived through the night.



