GRASSHOPPER, WARBLER. 287 
about two feet; all of which he was obliged to take away 
piecemeal before he succeeded in gaining the prize. The 
nest was composed of coarse dried grass, and contained five 
beautiful white eggs, closely freckled with carnation spots.” 
The Grasshopper Warbler is found within a few miles 
north of London, and also in Surrey. A nest brought me 
in May 1837, containing five eggs, was cup-shaped, about 
four inches across over the top, formed externally of coarse 
grass, and lined with finer bents within. This bird some- 
times lays as many as seven eggs, eight lines long by six 
lines in breadth, of a pale reddish white colour, freckled 
all over with specks of darker red. I have seen five or six 
sets of the egos of the Grasshopper Warbler which did not 
differ either in colour or marks. 
Besides the counties immediately round London, the 
Grasshopper Warbler has been observed to visit Hamp- 
shire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, and 
Wales. It was considered also as a visitor to Ireland by 
Montagu and the late Mr. Templeton, but is not included 
in the Catalogue of the Insessorial Birds of that country 
obligingly supplied me by my friend William Thompson, 
Hsq. of Belfast. In a direction north of London, this 
species is seen in Suffolk, Norfolk, several parts of York- 
shire, in Cumberland, Northumberland, and Durham, 
where, according to Mr. Selby, it frequents low shrubby 
underwood in moist situations. Mr. Rennie, in a note to 
White’s History of Selborne, mentions having seen and 
heard this species near Edinburgh and in Ayrshire. On 
the European Continent it frequents during summer the 
central and southern parts, but is not very numerous. It 
is rare in Holland, where, M. Temminck says, it frequents 
the sides of rivers. In Italy and in Sicily it is observed on 
its passage in the spring only. 
