THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 179 



In Holland, France, Switzerland, &c, I have seen the species, 

 commonly in summer and autumn. When proceeding from Malta 

 to the Morea in H.M.S. Beacon, in April, 1841, one of these 

 birds on migration, came on board on the 23rd, when we were 

 eighty miles from Malta, and fifty from Cape Passaro ; it remained 

 in the vessel all day. On the 26th, when about ninety miles from 

 Zante, and 130 from Navarino, another alighted, as did like- 

 wise the still more beautiful pied-wheatear, (Saxicola leuco- 

 mela), and a whinchat (Sax. rubetra). On the 28th of April, 

 wheatears were met with about Navarino ; and on the 12th of May 

 a few were seen on Mount Pagrus, above Smyrna. Several of 

 the S. leucomela appeared about the summit of the loftiest moun- 

 tain in the island of Syra, on the 7th of May. 



THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



Salicaria locustella, Lath, (sp.) 

 Sylvia „ „ 



Is probably a regular summer visitant to suitable locali- 

 ties from south to north. 



Montagu states that he has found this bird in Ireland (Orn. 

 Diet.), and Templeton remarks that it is " not very uncommon 

 during spring and summer,"* which observation is meant to 

 apply to the neighbourhood of Belfast. In M'Skimmin's History 

 of Carrickfergus, it is remarked that this warbler " inhabits thickets 

 and close hedges, and makes a noise in the summer evenings re- 

 sembling the winding up of a clock, or call of the common grass- 

 hopper." Por many years, birds considered, from their very peculiar 

 note, to be of this species, were occasionally heard andjseen (but the 

 latter very rarely and only for a moment) around Belfast, — in the 

 counties of Down and Antrim, — by my ornithological friends and 

 myself. But no specimen killed either here or anywhere in Ire- 

 land, — guns being laid up at the time of the bird's sojourn with 

 us, — came under my examination, until the 2,5th of July, 1839, 

 when my friend Richard K. Sinclaire, Esq., brought me an adult 



* Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 405, New Series. 

 N 2 



