286 SYLVIADA. 
distinction. The rounded form of the tail, the outer 
feathers being much shorter than those in the middle, 
and the partiality of these birds to moist situations, par- 
ticularly conspicuous in the Sedge and the Reed Warblers, 
appear to separate them from the Sylvan Warblers. I 
have therefore adopted the generic name and characters 
proposed for them by Mr. Selby. 
The Grasshopper Warbler, so called from its very pecu- 
liar and almost incessant cricket-like note, is a visitor 
from the South, which comes to this country for the 
summer, and is first to be heard and occasionally seen 
about the middle of April, and leaves us again in Septem- 
ber. In its habits, it 1s shy, vigilant and restless, secreting 
itself in a hedge bottom, and creeping along it for many 
yards in succession, more like a mouse than a bird; seldom 
to be seen far from a thicket, a patch of furze, or covert of 
some sort, and returning to it again on the least alarm. 
Durmg the breeding season, when bushes and shrubs are 
clothed with leaves, it is difficult to obtam a sight of 
this bird; yet, when near its haunt, its note rings on the 
ear constantly, and, like that of other Aquatic Warblers, 
may be heard about sunset particularly, and sometimes 
even during the night. The food of the Grasshopper 
Warbler is small snails, slugs, and insects. 
Unless the old birds are closely watched and seen carry- 
ing materials for building or food to their young, the nest 
is very difficult to find. One discovered by Mr. R. R. 
Wingate of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who “ watched the 
bird to the distant passage on the top of a whin-bush by 
which it entered and left the nest, was built at the bottom 
of a deep narrow furrow or ditch, overhung by the prickly 
branches of the whin, and grown over with thick coarse 
grass, matted together year after year, to the height of 
