THE LESSER WHITETHROAT AS A CLYDE SPECIES 211 



Account" of the Parish of Hamilton, in 1838. He says: 

 " This bird, supposed to be confined to England, is common 

 here. The nest is sometimes in a hedge, but more frequently 

 among long dry grass, by the side of a wood, four or five 

 inches from the ground, and generally overshadowed by a 

 tiny bramble or some other shrub. The nest is more 

 compact than that of the larger Whitethroat, which, in 

 addition to its numerous names, is here called ' Beardy ' and 

 ' Blethering Tarn.' The song of the Sylviella is sweeter and 

 more perfect than that of the common sort, and its eggs are 

 also very different." Patrick was a good naturalist, best 

 known nowadays through his " Popular Description of the 

 Indigenous Plants of Lanarkshire" (1831), and much of the 

 natural history in the accounts of Lanarkshire and, in a less 

 degree, of Renfrewshire parishes in the " New Statistical 

 Account " is from his pen. 



About the same time a statement of its occurrence 

 appears in the " New Statistical Account " of Paisley Parish 

 (p. 163), which contains a long account of the natural 

 history, supplied, as a footnote informs us, by Dr. A. R. 

 Young, " formerly of this town [Paisley], but now resident at 

 Dunoon." Dr. Young's statement is : " The following summer 

 birds are occasionally seen : Curnica sylvia, sylviella, 

 locustella, hortensis, sibilatri.r, atricapilla, and Regulus 

 trochilus" There is another old statement by James Rennie, 

 author of " Bird Architecture," " Bird Miscellanies," etc., but 

 I have been unable at date to get at the original. [It 

 appeared in Rennie's edition of " Montagu's Orn. Diet," 

 p. 17 a (1831), EDS.] So far, I only know from Macgillivray 

 that Rennie mentions it as occurring in Ayrshire. 



Mr. A. G. More's ' Distribution of Birds in Great 

 Britain during the Nesting Season,' which appeared in the 

 "Ibis," 1865, gives no new light on "Clyde," except the 

 following : " Mr. R. Gray believes it breeds near Loch 

 Lomond, and he has also obtained the bird from Argyleshire." 

 In the year before this statement appeared, Mr. Gray had 

 contributed an article on the ' Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fishes 

 of Loch Lomond,' etc., to a " Tourist's Guide Book to the 

 Trossachs, Loch Lomond," etc., and he says there that this 



1 "I am confident I have seen it in Ayrshire," loc. cit. 



