I52 The Irish Naturalist. July, 
imitating the Skylark, Sparrow, Swallow, &c., in a strange 
hurrying song." Mr. Atkinson calls it " this everlasting 
little songster." 
The Wood Warbler. — This beautiful bird is com- 
paratively rare in our country. Mr. Ussher observes that 
it ha,s for the most part occurred in the Co. Wicklow. I 
have heard it at the Dargle, Powerscourt, and Glendalough ; 
its song once heard is not likely to be forgotten, and it is 
frequently followed, and sometimes preceded, by a curious 
" jee, jee, jee," in a shrill tone so different from its song, 
that I have found it difficult to convince a hearer that it 
was uttered by the same bird. 
The Grasshopper Warbler is the last of our rarer 
wmblers which I should like to notice, for the Icterine 
Warbler, a wonderful songster, has only once certainly 
occurred in Ireland. The Grasshopper Warbler derives its 
name from its curious note, for, as Mr. Johns says, "it is 
but an exaggeration of the Grasshopper's note, and resembles 
the noise produced by pulling out the line from the winch 
of a fishing rod." 
It is best heard on hot summer e\^enings, and on such 
occasions I have heard it in the Phoenix Park, at Balbriggan, 
and at Portlaw in the Co. Waterford, where, in company 
with my friend. Rev. W. W. Flemyng, I noted as many as 
five different songs in one evening. Gilbert White says : — 
" The country people when you tell them that it is a bird 
will hardly give you credence." 
Before concluding these somewhat discursive remarks I 
wish to say a word about a warbler, one of the most common 
on the continent, which yet ne\'er seems to have found its 
way to England or to Ireland. I mean Bonelli's Warbler, 
Phylloscopus Bonelli, so called from the distinguished 
naturalist. Chevalier Bonelli, from whom also an eagle 
takes its name. When first I saw this bird I fook it for 
a Wood Warbler, but could not understand the difference 
in its note. I only learned its name, when, in company 
with the distinguished naturahst, Mr. Warde Fowler, I heard 
it on the Axenstein near Brimnen on Lake Luzern, and he 
exclaimed " there is Bonelli." 
