GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 
223 
locustelle, Buff. Ois. 5. p. 42. — Ih. pi. Enl. 581. f. 3. under the title of Fauvette 
tachetee Bec-fin locustelle, Temm. Man. d’Orn. 1. p. 184. — Fleuschrechen- 
sanger, Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1, p. 230. — Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 3. p. 562. 
sp. 23, — Grasshopper Warbler, Br. Zool. 1. No. 156. — Arct. Zool. 2. p. 419. 
Lath. Syn. 4. 429. t. 20. — -lb. Supp. 2. p. 240. — White’s Hist. Selb. p. 45 — 
Lewins Br. Birds, 3. t. 98. — -Mont. Orn. Diet — Ib. Supp — Bewick's Supp. to 
Br. Birds. — Titlark that sings like a grasshopper. Will. (Angl.) p. 207. — Selby, 
pi. 45. **fig. 1. p. 166.* 
This species is less than the whitethroat ; length five inches and a 
half ; weight about three drams and a quarter. The bill is dusky 
above, whitish beneath ; irides light hazel. The whole upper parts of 
the bird are olivaceous-brown ; the middle of each feather dusky, ex- 
cept on the back of the neck, which gives it a pretty spotted appear- 
ance ; eyelids, chin, throat, and belly, yellowish white ; breast, sides, 
and thighs, inclining to brown, the two last faintly streaked with dusky ; 
under tail coverts very pale brown, marked down the shafts with long 
pointed streaks of a dusky colour ; quills and tail dusky brown, lighter 
on their exterior edges, tinged with olive ; the tail is much cuneiform, 
and the feathers somewhat pointed, which is a very marked and pecu- 
liar character in this species ; the outer feather being full an inch 
shorter than the middle ones, and nearly rounded at the tips, the wing 
remarkably short, reaching very little beyond the base of the tail ; legs 
very pale brown ; claws light horn-colour ; hind claw short and crooked. 
In shape the Grasshopper Warbler very much resembles the sedge 
bird ; is rather inferior in size, and at once distinguished by its spotted 
back. 
It is not a plentiful species, but probably appears less so by its habit 
of concealing itself amongst furze and thick hedges, discovering their 
place of concealment only by their singular cricket-like note, which is 
so exactly like that of the mole cricket, as scarcely to be distinguished. 
As soon as the females arrive, which is in about ten days after, the 
males no longer expose themselves, and are almost silent till about the 
dusk of the evening, when they are incessantly crying'; possibly to 
decoy the larger species of grasshoppers, or mole cricket, which begin 
their chirping with the setting sun. The female very much resembles 
the other sex ; and is so shy as to be obtained with difficulty. On the 
eighteenth May, we found the nest of this bird in a patch of thick 
brambles and furze, with two eggs ; but as they had not been incubated, 
probably more would have been laid. The nest is of a flimsy texture, 
like that of the whitethroat, composed of dried stalks and goosegrass, 
lined with fibrous roots. The eggs are of a spotless bluish white, four 
or five in number, weighing about twenty-one grains. From the scarcity 
