550 LOCTJSTELLA CEETHIOLA. 



it darted out with a quick jerky flight into the nearest tussocks, from which I found it, in several instances, 

 impossible to drive. It frequented the same spots from day to day, as on escaping my pursuit on one occasion 

 I was sure to find it, at my next visit, in the same place. I was unable to detect it uttering any note save a 

 little chik of alarm ; but in the breeding-season it very likely has a somewhat similar creaking song (like the 

 noise of a cricket or grasshopper) to that which has earned for its European relative the name of Grasshopper- 

 Warbler. Mr. Seebohm remarks of it, as observed in Siberia in August, that he " found it very shy and 

 skulking in its habits. The young birds," he writes, " some only half-fledged, were still in broods ; and occa- 

 sionally I got a shot at one which left the sedges and ventured into the willows. They were calling anxiously 

 to each other, the note being a harsh tic, tic, tic." 



All the members of this interesting group of Warblers are characterized by their skulking habits. The 

 English bird (L. nevia), which arrives in the country in April, secretes itself in thick branches and grassy 

 underwood, out of which I have seen it running like a mouse. We read of it in Yarrell that " except on first 

 coming, when the cocks, awaiting the arrival of their mates, display themselves more than is their wont, it is 

 at all times difficult, and in the breeding-season, when bushes and shrubs are clothed with leaves, almost 

 impossible to obtain a sight of it." It is said to sing more at sunrise than any other time, and it has the 

 power of pitching its note so that it is very difficult to determine the direction from which it comes. This is 

 said to arise from the bird turning its head, which produces a remarkably ventriloquistic effect, already noticed 

 in this work in the case of other species. 



Genus PHTLLOSCOPUS. 

 Bill straight, rather slender and wide at the base ; the culmen curved at the tip only ; tip 

 notched. Nostrils oval and lengthened, placed in a wide membrane ; rictal bristles scanty. 

 Wings long ; the 1st quill exceeding the primary-coverts, the 3rd and 4th the longest, the 2nd 

 variable in length. Tail of 12 feathers, slightly emarginate. Tarsus longer than the middle toe 

 and shielded with smooth scutse. Feet small. 



