THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 
179 
In Holland, France, Switzerland, &c., I have seen the species, 
commonly in summer and autumn. When proceeding from Malta 
to the Morea in H.M.S. Beacon, in April, 1841, one of these 
birds on migration, came on board on the 23rd, when we were 
eighty miles from Malta, and fifty from Cape Passaro ; it remained 
in the vessel all day. On the 26th, when about ninety miles from 
Zante, and 130 from Navarino, another alighted, as did like- 
wise the still more beautiful pied-wheatear, ( Saxicola leuco- 
mela ), and a whinchat {Sax. rubetra). On the 28th of April, 
wheatears were met with about Navarino ; and on the 12th of May 
a few were seen on Mount Pagrus, above Smyrna. Several of 
the S. leucomela appeared about the summit of the loftiest moun- 
tain in the island of Syra, on the 7 th of May. 
THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 
Salicaria locustella , Lath, (sp.) 
Sylvia ,, ,, 
Is probably a regular summer visitant to suitable locali- 
ties from south to north. 
Montagu states that he has found this bird in Ireland (Orn. 
Diet.), and Templeton remarks that it is "not very uncommon 
during spring and summer,”* which observation is meant to 
apply to the neighbourhood of Belfast. In M'Skimmin’s History 
of Carrickfergus, it is remarked that this warbler “ inhabits thickets 
and close hedges, and makes a noise in the summer evenings re- 
sembling the winding up of a clock, or call of the common grass- 
hopper.” For many years, birds considered, from their very peculiar 
note, to be of this species, were occasionally heard and seen (but the 
latter very rarely and only for a moment) around Belfast, — in the 
counties of Down and Antrim, — by my ornithological friends and 
myself. But no specimen killed either here or anywhere in Ire- 
land, — guns being laid up at the time of the bird’s sojourn with 
us, — came under my examination, until the 25th of July, 1839, 
when my friend Richard K. Sinclaire, Esq., brought me an adult 
* Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 405, New Series. 
