CROP-WARBLER 
267 
With only one other bird could it be confused : 
Horsfield's Bush Lark, which inhabits the same sort 
of country — that is, fields of oats and wheat. But 
the Lark is larger and very much commoner, and 
has not, when in the air, the butterfly-like appearance 
of the Crop-warbler. 
Another of our Australian migrants, it reaches us 
when the oat-crops are well forward, and leaves again 
for the north not long after harvest. The earliest 
of the few records I have is of one seen singing over 
a crop at ^' Gillies," on the Barwon Heads Road on 
October 14th, 191 1. In November it is frequently to 
be noted in crops all through the district, except 
within about three miles of the town ; at this season 
many of the birds also resort to the marginal strip 
of fine tussock-grass which fringes the Barwon be- 
tween the Willows and the Gut," and the bulrush- 
covered edges of some of the shallow arms of Conne- 
warre : these places, no doubt, were the sole resort 
of the species in days before there were any crops. 
The nest is a small purse-shaped structure of fine 
grasses and lined with seed-down ; it is slung between 
stalks of grain or in the centre of a tussock. The eggs 
are beautiful bluish green with a few reddish spots. 
LITTLE GRASS-BIRD 
Poodytes gramineus wilsoni 
Whoever has gone shooting at Connewarre or over 
almost any swampy country in the district has heard 
