12 
NATURE NOTES 
\ oung robins flying about garden away from nest. As a result of very careful 
observation, I do not think the male redbreast took any part in incubation, 
although he was often near the nest, and continually fed the female when she 
was sitting. When he appeared on the fence with a grub or worm in his beak, 
he would often whistle as if to let the female know he was on his way to her 
with food. The great amount of insect food with which the young were fed 
surprised me, and it was all obtained in the immediate vicinity of my small 
garden. Worms and earwigs appeared to form the staple diet, hut white butter- 
flies and other insects, caterpillars and spiders were also added to the bill of 
fare. The parent robins became most tame and confiding, and on more than 
one occasion permitted me to approach and stroke them. The parents continued 
to feed both broods for some weeks after they had left the nest. 
W. Percival Westell. 
315. Grasshopper Warbler in Herts. — During last summer there was 
a marked increase in this most interesting species. At least three pairs nested 
within a mile or two of my house, and one particular pair I kept under almost 
daily observation. I first heard and saw the male bird on the evening of May 8, 
although a friend tells me he heard it in the same spot on May 3. The habitat 
was a thick hawthorn hedge, which divided pasture-land from a corn-field, but 
quite close — within twenty or thirty yards — of a pretty well-frequented cart and 
footpath. One side of the hedgerow, the south side, was much overgrown with 
thick rank grass, and here the nest was undoubtedly secreted, so much so, alas, 
that although I spent many, many hours, and endured many a bachache, I could 
not, and did not, succeed in locating the nest. I observed the birds morning after 
morning as I laid down in the thick wet grass, risking a premature attack of 
rheumatics in my anxiety to get a good sight of the birds. At 6 a.m. the male 
bird was always singing, and kept it up incessantly until I left at 7.30a.m. Soon 
after this hour he appeared to cease, and was not heard again until towards 
evening, then he would start with a vengeance, and keep it up until I used to 
leave him at near 10 o’clock. I should not wonder if he sang best part of the 
summer night. I had many opportunities of observing the male bird, much more 
so than the female. He would invariably perch on the outermost branch of the 
hedge within a yard or two of me, and did not strike me in the least as the 
recluse bird I had always considered him to be. As he sang — and the song 
I can best compare to the loud continuous “ purr ” of a cat — his beak vibrated at a 
tremendous rate, and his head moved rapidly from side to side. Sometimes he 
would sing without opening his beak, and as regards duration of song, I timed 
him on one occasion for over fifteen minutes without the slightest hesitation or 
cessation on his part. Then he was only disturbed a second or two and com- 
menced again. I put him to flight once or twice, and he invariably flew only 
a few yards into the cornfield, and befoie I was at the bottom of the field leading 
towards the pathway, was back again singing as cheerily as ever. I obtained 
much amusement of an evening by listening to the comments of the passers by. 
The noise made was variously stated to come from “a great big grasshopper,” 
a snake, a bat, and various other wild creatures. There is little doubt that the 
young were safely got off, and I am looking forward to renewing my acquaint- 
ance with this most interesting summer visitor next spring-time. 
In the same hedgerow, that is, within twenty yards’ range, there were nests 
of the yellow bunting, greater whitethroat, chaffinch, greenfinch, and robin, 
and just off the bankside in the corn the nest of the tree-pipit. So that my 
morning rambles last spring around the haunt of the grasshopper warbler pos- 
sessed great variety in the bird-life there observed. 
5, Glenferrie Road , St. Albans , Herts , W. Percival Westell, 
December 8, 1905. M.B.O.U. 
316. Thrush Building on Ground. — Every lover of birds can give 
numerous instances of strange and out-of-the-way nesting places, but it is so 
rarely that a matter of fact bird like the thrush departs from precedent, that any 
example becomes worth chronicling. The photograph shown is of a thrush’s 
nest built on the ground in the middle of a marshy paddock. It was placed in 
an old hoofmark, on a slight rise, within 3 feet of a ditch used for draining, 
where the first kingcups were in flower. There was no hedge or cover of any 
description within 25 or 30 yards, and no attempt had been made to utilise the 
