THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 



The Grasshopper Warbler is a little 

 brown bird of about the same size and 

 general appearance as the familiar Hedge 

 Sparrow, but with the strangest voice 

 and manners. It arrives in this country 

 about the middle of April, and takes 

 its departure again in September. 



It does not appear to matter much 

 whether the country where this species 

 breeds be wet or dry, so long as there is 

 plenty of dense cover in which it can 

 hide and skulk about mouse-like and 

 unseen. It is a great lover of old haunts, 

 and in the absence of accidents will 

 return season after season with the ut- 

 most regularity to some favourite clump 

 of gorse growing on a sandy conrnron 

 or to an ancient reed-bed in the middle 

 of a water-logged marsh. It is very 



65 



