214 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Mr. J. M. B. Taylor tells me that he took a Lesser 

 Whitethroat to Mr. Kirk, taxidermist, Glasgow, but it was 

 too far gone to set up as a specimen. " This one was shot 

 among willows on the east side of Glasgow. It was shot 

 by Mr. James Waterston, Edinburgh." 



Two years ago, in May (1897), Messrs. Barr and Craig, 

 of Beith, visited Ailsa Craig. At that time, according to 

 Mr. Tulloch, one of the lightkeepers, there were several 

 Lesser Whitethroats on the Craig. Two of them were seen 

 at a few yards distance, and the gentlemen named thought 

 they were Lesser Whitethroats. About the same time Mr. 

 W. Eagle Clarke visited Ailsa Craig, and he told me shortly 

 thereafter that birds pointed out to him by the lightkeeper 

 as Lesser Whitethroats were Common Whitethroats. 



Mr. Charles Kirk, taxidermist, Glasgow, tells me that 

 he is quite sure that he once met with the Lesser White- 

 throat in the "Clyde" area. This was in July 1898, in a 

 small glen behind Shandon on the Gareloch. The bird seen 

 was carrying food, and he had it under observation for a 

 considerable time, as he spent half an hour in a fruitless 

 search for its nest. 



It is a remarkable fact that though in the case of some 

 of the warblers, regarding the distribution of which the 

 details are very meagre in Gray's " Birds of the West of 

 Scotland," etc. (for instance, the Garden and Grasshopper 

 Warblers, and the Chiffchaff and Wood Wren), our knowledge 

 has been greatly extended in the last ten years, to our 

 knowledge of the Lesser Whitethroat there has been in the 

 same period no substantial addition. In all the above 

 detailed information there is very little indeed that is 

 thoroughly satisfactory and unimpeachable. Nothing would 

 give me greater pleasure than to see this interesting warbler 

 occupying a more uncertain place in the avifauna of " Clyde." 

 At present, most of the evidence I have been able to bring 

 together is very inconclusive, and some of it is open to 

 suspicion. The status of the Lesser \Vhitethroat, indeed, 

 remains with us more a matter of opinion than of actual 

 knowledge. 



