THE GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER. 

 Locustella ncevia (Boddaert). 

 Plate 8. 



The Grasshopper- Warbler is a local but widely distributed species over 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland, and has been recorded as nesting "as far north 

 as Elgin " [A Hand-list of British Birds, p. 62). According to Howard Saunders 

 [Manual of British Birds, 2nd ed., p. 89), "Northumberland and Durham are 

 two of the counties in which it is abundant in some summers." 



In Europe it ranges as far north as Norway and southwards to Spain, where 

 it sometimes passes the winter. It is also found during this season in North 

 Africa. 



The cup-shaped nest is made of dead grass and moss, sometimes with the 

 addition of withered leaves, and lined with finer grasses. It is carefully hidden 

 among dense herbage, such as brambles, furze-bushes, &c., and when disturbed 

 the bird glides off with a mouse-like action before taking wing. The four to 

 seven eggs are of a delicate pinkish-tinted white, spotted with red-brown dots, and 

 having paler underlying markings. 



The earliest date on which I have heard the song of the Grasshopper-Warbler 

 in Surrey was on 26th April, and it leaves us in September. 



Once heard, its peculiar reeling notes can never be mistaken for those of any 

 other bird, and although called the Grasshopper- Warbler, the noise produced is 

 much louder and more continuous than that made by the insect. 



Its food consists of insects and their larvae. 



In habits it is an extremely shy and skulking bird, and may best be observed 

 in the very early morning, when it often leaves the shelter of the thick under- 

 growth, where the nest is hidden, and sings on the upper twigs of the brambles 

 and bushes. 



The sexes do not differ in plumage. 



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