BRITISH BIRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND. 



439 



their chant until the setting of the sun, but continuing then, with 

 very little intermission, throughout the night. Their note considerably 

 resembles that of the mole-cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris) ; and it has 

 been suggested by Montagu, that as it is chiefly uttered at the time 

 these singular insects are about, it may possibly serve also as a decoy 

 to inveigle them to their destruction ; had this, however, been in- 

 tended, it is probable that both sexes would have been endowed with 

 the same deceptive cry; whereas, the female grasshopper warbler is, 

 it is believed, quite mute. 



In one of the excellent and original notes to White's (< Natural 

 Historv of Selborne," bv the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, to which I 

 have already so often referred, is a figure and description of the nest 

 of an aquatic warbler, found by that gentleman in the neighbourhood 

 of his residence, at Spofforth in Yorkshire, and which is now in his 

 possession. The owners having deserted it, there was of course no 

 method of ascertaining the species to which it belonged ; but it is, most 

 decidedly, the nest of a bird of this genus, and different from that of 

 any of the species whose nidification is known. It contained one small, 

 acute, white egg. M. Temminck states, but without mentioning his 

 authority, that several specimens of the bouscarle (Pkragmites cetli, 

 Sylvia celli, Marmora) have been killed in England, and that it is here 

 probably always confounded with the reed warbler (Ph. arundinacea). 

 He infers, also, from this, that the species is probably more widely dis- 

 tributed than naturalists are aware of ; but as, excepting in this in- 

 stance, the bouscarle has never been found but in the south of Europe, 

 it is more than probable that that author was misinformed. All the 

 aquatic warblers whose nests are known, with the exception of the 

 grasshopper warbler, lay spotted eggs * ; and I think it extremely 

 probable that the species, the nest of which was found by Mr. 

 Herbert, will turn out to be new, and hitherto undescribed. 



The generic division Sylvia being now rendered sizeable, and limited 

 to one only of the numerous and dissimilar groups, or natural genera, 



* The egg of the bouscarle is of an extremely dark colour, and not very unlike 

 that of the tree pipit (Anthus arboreus). This bird, together with its nest and eggs, 

 forms one of the very best of Shintz's coloured engravings of the European Sylviadce. 

 The colouring of these plates, in most instances, is very correct, but the figures 

 • are, in general, most execrable, having evidently been taken from villainously stuffed 

 specimens. Most of the numerous representations, however, of the nests, and 

 eggs, are admirable.-— E. B. 



kk2 



