THE GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER (LOCUSTELLA
NÆVIA) IN NORTH WORCESTERSHIRE.
By H. Eliot Howard.
Very few birds interest me as much, I might almost say none more, than the Grasshopper-Warbler, and the following notes are the result of many years' observation in this county. Probably, owing to the habits of birds varying so widely in different districts, these notes will not be found to agree entirely with the experiences of other naturalists who have studied this Warbler in different parts of the British Islands to myself.
The dates of arrival in this county for the last four years (leaving out 1898, when I was absent) are as follows: 1896, April 19th; 1897, April 23rd; 1899, April 20th; 1900, April 19th. It is certainly much more regular in its time of arrival than the other summer migrants, the dates, as will be seen, varying very little. No matter what the weather is when it first arrives, its note is sure to be heard in the morning—cold, frost, or rain seeming to have very little effect in preventing it singing. As a rule, they will be found at once in the spot where they intend to breed, but I have sometimes found them for the first few mornings after they arrive in hedges by the side of a road. One which I especially noticed last year was singing in a hedge which was absolutely bare, and opposite to which was a farmyard; but they all pass on in a day or two to more suitable breeding haunts.
There are certain places where I can always be sure of finding one or two pairs, and these are for the most part osier-beds which have been cut down two or three years previously. The osiers are then about four feet high, intermingled with hazel, and with very thick undergrowth. These sort of places they seem to prefer for breeding purposes more than any other; but I have found them fairly plentiful in large woods, where the undergrowth is very thick, but in almost every instance there has been water
