Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 23, 2025
The Curlew soars to a great height, and upon outstretched wings hovers in the air whilst uttering its plaintive wail; the cock Grouse, as if dissatisfied with its "crowing," springs into the air and becomes a conspicuous object of the moor; the wary Redshank, poised on flickering wings, forgets its mournful alarm cry, and finds again its melodious song; and even the secretive Grasshopper-Warbler crawls out of the midst of the thicket in order to "reel," just as, for a similar reason, Savi's Warbler climbs to the top of a tall reed.
The small plantation or wooded bank may hold a Nightingale one year, but we miss its song there the next; the osier bed or gorse-covered common which vibrates with the trill of the Grasshopper-Warbler one April is deserted the following season; the plantation which is occupied by a host of common migrants this summer may be enlivened next year by the song of the rarer Marsh-Warbler also; and so on.
The male Grasshopper-Warbler, when it first reaches us, sings persistently, but when it is joined by a female a change becomes apparent; instead of the incessant trill, there are spasmodic outbursts of short duration, and in the course of a few days the bird lapses into a silence which may be broken for a short while at dawn, or late in the evening, but is often complete.
But just why a Marsh-Warbler is gifted with a voice that is so beautiful and varied, whilst the Grasshopper-Warbler must perforce remain content with a monotonous trill; just why the tail feathers of the Snipe have developed into an instrument, whilst the Pied Woodpecker has developed muscles which enable it to make use of a decayed branch as an instrument we know no more than we do of the nature of the forces which lead the Reed-Warbler to weave its nest to reeds, or the caterpillar of the Elephant Hawk Moth to assume so peculiar an attitude when disturbed.
For example, the Grasshopper-Warbler, Marsh-Warbler, Nightingale, Corncrake, Red-backed Shrike, or Whinchat have each some distinctive peculiarity which makes them conspicuous, and each one is subject to marked fluctuation in numbers.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking