GRASSHOPPER WARBLER 29 
LOCUSTELLA NAVIA (Boddert) GRASS- 
HOPPER WARBLER. 
A specimen was reported on 22nd April 1885 at 
Langness lighthouse by Mr. Clyne (? authenticated. Mr. 
Clyne was sending at this time wings, etc., of specimens 
taken), 
This seems to have been all that had been recorded 
about the species in Man until the Messrs. Graves and the 
writer made on 30th May 1903 the interesting discovery 
that it is common on the Curragh at Ballaugh, where a 
number were heard singing from the clumps of willow 
bushes on the wet and turfy waste, 
Immediately after I recognised the song in the low- 
land of the central valley near Ballacraine (Zool., 1903, 
p. 313), and on 28th May 1904 Mr. H. Graves heard it in 
the Curragh at Greeba, All these districts are of the same 
nature, damp meadow-land merging into turfy swamp, with 
hedges and clusters of willow forming often a close tangle 
of low bushy vegetation. From these sounds the mono- 
tonous trilling note, a minute and insect-like sound, yet 
penetrating, and heard to a very considerable distance. In 
the Ballaugh Curragh we often heard several at the same 
time. 
Mr. Leaman, whose description of the ‘song’ cannot be 
mistaken, tells me that he has heard it both at Foxdale and 
along the wet and bushy stream sides of the Dhoon neigh- 
bourhood, where he says the boys used to debate whether 
_ the unseen performer could be a bird. 
The Grasshopper Warbler is well, though locally, dis- 
tributed over most parts of Great Britain and Ireland. It is 
said to be extending its Scottish range, but has not been 
detected in the outer islands, 
