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SYLVIA Locustella. 
The Grasshopper Warbler . 
S. Locustella. Olive brown, with dusky spots, beneath yellowish- 
white, darker on the breast, tail wedge-shaped with pointed 
feathers. Turt . Brit. Faun. v. I. p. 45. 
Bill dusky above, pale beneath. Iris hazel. From the bill to the 
eyes a yellowish streak. Breast and sides inclining to brown, with 
a few dark streaks. Quills and tail dusky, olive-brown, with pa- 
ler outer margins. Legs pale brown. Length five inches and a 
half; weight three drachms and a quarter. Turt. loc. cit . 
The present species is very rare in the neighbour- 
hood of London, and I have never seen more than a 
single living one myself, any where in the vicinity ; 
that one I caught in a Nightingale trap, about the mid- 
dle of August, 1823, in Mr. Colvill’s late Grosvenor 
Nursery, in the Five Fields, near Grosvenor- place, 
which Is now partly covered with houses : I kept it till 
the February following ; and it would have succeeded 
well, had I not allowed it to wash so much, not think- 
ing at the time that the washing would hurt it ; so that 
it frequently washed itself three or four times a day, 
which at last weakened it so much, that on a cold day 
it caused its death. It never attempted to sing while I 
had it in confinement, which was probably from its 
being an old bird ; apd I have not been able to procure 
another since. It thrived remarkably well on the same 
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