12 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



GREAT TIT, Parus major. Linnaeus. ) -p, ., , 



> Both common residents, 

 BLUE TIT, Parus cxruleus, Linnaeus, j 



breeding alike in the town and in the adjacent country. 



COAL TIT, Parus ater, Linnaeus. Breeds in suitable localities 

 adjoining the borough, and possibly sometimes within it ; but I do 

 not remember having met with it very near the town itself. 



MARSH TIT, Parus pahtstris, Linnaeus. Less common than the 

 last species, but nests regularly, within a mile or two of our parlia- 

 mentary boundary, on the English side. I have also found it breed- 

 ing in Berwickshire, but do not recollect to have seen a specimen 

 actually within our limits. 



NUTHATCH, Sitta ccesta, Wolf. I have never myself met with 

 this bird on the Borders, but Gray (" Birds of the West of Scotland," 

 p. 199) records a specimen, shot in the summer of 1865, near Her- 

 miston, in Haddingtonshire, and another, killed in a garden near 

 Dunse, in March 1856. Mr. Gray has also recorded ("Hist. Berw. 

 Nat. Club," vol. viii. p. 157) having seen one, which had been shot 

 near Jedburgh, on i8th January 1877; and in the same journal 

 (vol. vii. p. 502) the late Mr. Brotherston, of Kelso, mentions having 

 caught one on her nest, in a strip of plantation between Houndridge 

 and Harpertoun, near Ednam, about 1850. 



TREE-CREEPER, Certhia familiaris, Linnaeus. A resident, and 

 found breeding, throughout the surrounding country, wherever woods 

 prevail ; but only a straggler on the outskirts of the borough. 



The favourite nesting site of the Creeper is behind a piece of 

 bark which has become partially detached from the bole of a tree, 

 or in a crack caused by the splitting away of some large branch 

 from the trunk. Such vertical fissures seem always to be preferred 

 to a regular hole, such as a Titmouse would choose. It also builds 



o > 



not infrequently in old walls. 



WREN, Troglodytes parvulus, K. L. Koch. A common and 

 well-known resident. 



DIPPER, Cinclus aquatints, Bechstein. A familiar bird upon all 

 our Border streams ; breeds at " Cantie's Bridge," and at New Mills, 

 on the Whitadder, within the borough. Two or three broods are 

 reared in the season, the same nest being generally resorted to, 

 with a new lining added to it ; and a favourite station is occupied 

 year after year. No matter at what distance the nearest trees 

 may grow, the nest is always lined out with beech or alder leaves, 

 and amongst these I have invariably found one or two leaves, 

 seldom more, of the oak. 



I have always kept a look out here for the northern form (C. 

 melanogaster), but have never been able to detect it. 



