Our Summer Migrants: An Account of the Migratory Birds Which Pass the Summer in the British Islands.Harting, James Edmund
Science
Our Summer Migrants: An Account of the Migratory Birds Which Pass the Summer in the British Islands.
Harting, James Edmund
Birds -- Great Britain
The third species of this genus which is a regular summer migrant to
this country is the Grasshopper Warbler, so called from its peculiar
sibilant note. In its general appearance it is most like the Sedge
Warbler, but is larger in every way, and has the upper part of the
plumage more variegated, no superciliary streak, and the throat minutely
spotted. This last feature, however, is peculiar to the male. In habits,
haunts, and in the character of its nest and eggs, the Grasshopper
Warbler differs entirely from the two species above mentioned. It
delights in a dense undergrowth or thick hedge-bottom, where it creeps
about more like a mouse than a bird, and is extremely difficult to catch
sight of, pausing at intervals to seize an insect or to give forth its
remarkable note. Its well-made and compact nest, so different from the
slovenly structure of the Sedge Warbler, is placed upon the ground, and
carefully concealed. The eggs, five or six in number, are amongst the
most beautiful of small birds’ eggs. When blown they are white, minutely
freckled over with brownish-red; but before the yolk has been expelled
they are suffused with a delicate rosy tint, which afterwards
unfortunately disappears. The Grasshopper Warbler is a regular summer
visitant to Ireland, and is also found in the south of Scotland. Its
retiring habits probably cause it to be overlooked, and were it not for
its loud note it would doubtless often escape notice altogether. It does
not appear to be anywhere a numerous species, and its geographical
distribution has not been yet clearly defined. It is observed in
Southern Europe at the periods of migration, and we may therefore
presume that it accompanies its congeners and other small summer
migrants to North Africa, Asia Minor, and Palestine.
SAVI’S WARBLER.
(_Salicaria luscinoides._)
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