438 



E1UTISH BIRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND. 



lined with fine dry grass and horse-hair. It is placed generally in a 

 low bush, or among the low side branches of a poplar or willow tree 

 near the water ; or it is firmly bound (in some species) to a few con- 

 tiguous reed-stems. The construction is thicker and more solid than 

 in the nests of the Ficedulce, the quantity of material being much 

 greater ; and it is usually very deep, in most species nearly oval. 

 Their song consists generally of a great variety of guttural, grinding 

 notes, by no means unpleasing, and may be heard alike at all hours, by 

 night as well as by day. That of the grasshopper warbler, however 

 (if song it can be called), is very peculiar. Mr. Selby describes it 

 well, as iC a sort of sibillant ringing cry." It is a singular, continuous, 

 rattling, or rather thrilling sound*, beginning generally very low, and 

 becoming, in about a minute, loud enough to be heard at a considerable 

 distance : this continues for several minutes without intermission, and 

 is uttered with a kind of ventriloquism, the bird continuing in one 

 place, while the voice would intimate that it was perpetually shifting 

 its situation. This species has been represented as extremely rare in 

 the neighbourhood of London, a statement which does not correspond 

 with my observation, as I have heard, and indeed shot, several within 

 five or six miles of the metropolis. I have known them to breed on 

 Streatham Common, and likewise on Penge Common f> within that 

 distance of London ; also on Wimbledon Common, and (in great num- 

 bers) in a particular part of Coombe Wood J, where, on a summer 

 evening., the whole place seems in a thrill with them. In this neigh- 

 bourhood they are amongst the earliest of the summer birds of passage, 

 making their appearance generally about the first or second week in 

 April ; and, on their first arrival, are easy enough to procure, as they 

 then often expose themselves, at all hours, on the topmost twig of a 

 bramble or other bush, repeating, almost incessantly, their monotonous, 

 unvaried cry. After a week or ten days, however, (that is, when the 

 female has arrived,) these birds no longer expose themselves, but skulk 

 all day in silence amongst the thickest brambles, rarely commencing 



* It bears not the slightest resemblance to the shrill and not unpleasing cry of 

 the common shrew (Sorex araneus), the species whose faint chirping cry was once 

 thought by Solitarius to proceed from the grasshopper-warbler. See page 403 — 

 E. B. 



t Amongst the brambles and underwood, on the left side of the Croydon canal 

 going from town. I have never observed them on the other side — E. B. 



X The low ground about Coombe Bridge ; I have heard them also in various 

 parts of the wood. — E. B. 



