io ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



honeysuckle, growing in the Vicarage garden, at Ancroft, five miles 

 south of Berwick. 



In certain localities it greatly exceeds the Blackcap in numbers, 

 as for example, in the Duke of Northumberland's park at Alnwick, 

 where, upon more than one occasion, I have found more than half a 

 dozen nests in the course of an afternoon. In reference to Mr. A. 

 H. Evans's remarks (" Scottish Naturalist," 1891, p. 105), I may add 

 that I have also found it nesting in Messrs. Stuart and Mein's 

 nurseries at Kelso (first in 1883, and several times since), as well as 

 in the neighbourhood of Yetholm, and in several other localities in 

 that district. 



Its partiality for garden fruit is well known, and, prior to 1877, 

 I used to catch it under the raspberry nets at Weetwood Hall. 



BLACKCAP, Sylvia atricapilla (Linnaeus). Another well-distri- 

 buted breeding species in both the adjoining counties, and of pretty 

 regular occurrence in Berwick, on migration, in April and September. 

 It appears occasionally to winter in the district. 



GREAT REED WARBLER, Acrocephalus turdoides (Meyer.) A 

 passing reference may be made to the well-known instance of the 

 occurrence of this very rare straggler to England, on 2Sth May 1847, 

 near Newcastle-on-Tyne (J. Hancock, "Birds of Northumberland 

 and Durham," and "Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist.," vol. xx. p. 135). 



SEDGE WARBLER, Acrocephalus phragmitis (Bechstein). An 

 abundant summer visitant, breeding in any thickish hedge or under- 

 growth. It is an incessant singer, and carols away merrily through- 

 out the short summer nights. Should it chance that the bird is 

 silent, as we pass by his haunts, at this season of the year, all that 

 is necessary is to " wake him up " by throwing a stone into the 

 hedge, and, no matter what the hour may be, his ready tongue is at 

 once let loose. 



GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, Locustella ncevia (Boddaert). Breeds 

 in both the adjoining counties, and may perhaps occasionally do so 

 within the limits of the borough ; but it is a most eccentric species, 

 and crops up suddenly in some seasons, and begins to nest, where 

 perhaps it has not been seen for more than a decade. 1879 was 

 one of its years of plenty, and in June of that year, Mr. A. H. 

 Evans and I found it nesting, quite numerously, amongst the heather, 

 on the hillsides, between Yetholm and Wooler, in localities in which 

 I have since looked for it almost in vain. In the same year, towards 

 the end of June, it appeared in a hedge, by the roadside, near Castle 

 Hills Lodge, and sang there nightly, for a week or ten days. This 

 is the only occasion upon which I have seen this bird actually 

 within "the Bounds," but in the following year, I found its nest, in 

 Murton Dene, less than a couple of miles outside the parliamentary 



