A LIST OF THE BIRDS OF BERWICK-ON-TWEED 9 



persons had come to hear it. As it afterwards turned out, the bird 

 had almost ceased singing before I heard it, and it was very little 

 either seen or heard after the i3th June. 



It will be remembered that the summer of 1893 was one of the 

 hottest, and finest, we have experienced for many years in the north 

 of England, and it was supposed that the fine spring had tempted 

 the Nightingale to exceed its usual northern limit. During May and 

 June the barometer stood at a very high point, and remained prac- 

 tically stationary, whilst on the iSth June the thermometer recorded 

 85 in the shade in the Whittingham neighbourhood, and was up 

 nearly five points higher a few days later. 



It seems only right to notice here that in the " History of the 

 Berwickshire Naturalists' Club," vol. viii. p. 446, the late Rev. J. F. 

 Bigge has recorded that " during the very hot weather in the last 

 week in June 1878 a Nightingale was heard, about eight o'clock, 

 for several evenings, singing in a wood close to Blanchland, on the 

 river Derwent, in the county of Northumberland. A great number 

 of the inhabitants went out each night to hear it." But, unfortun- 

 ately, Mr. Bigge does not state whether he himself had heard the 

 bird, or whether he could personally vouch for the record. 



HEDGE SPARROW, Accentor modularis (Linnaeus). Abundant at 

 all seasons. 



WHITETHROAT, Sylvia cinerea, Bechstein. A common summer 

 visitant, and breeds freely in the borough. In most years we used 

 to have a nest of it, in Ravensdowne, and it was a frequent visitor 

 with other warblers, in September. 



LESSER WHITETHROAT, Sylvia curruca (Linnaeus). I have onlv 

 once been able to identify this species here, when, as recorded in 

 the "History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club," vol. x. p. 389, 

 two examples were shot, one on the i4th, the other on 26th Sep- 

 tember 1 88 1. 



GARDEN WARBLER, Sylvia hortensis, Bechstein. A not un- 

 common breeding species, both in Northumberland and Berwick- 

 shire, and well distributed, but within the borough itself there are 

 few situations likely to tempt it and kindred species to settle. I 

 first met with it, on migration, at Berwick, in 1883, when two or 

 three individuals were observed in the garden, at Ravensdowne, on the 

 1 7th September and subsequent days. Since that date it has been 

 noticed there on 22nd May 1884, a pair or more; 27th August 

 1884; 1 7th August 1885, and frequently between that date and 

 27th September following; and on 22nd August 1886. After this 

 year, owing to our no longer occupying that garden, the same oppor- 

 tunities for observation have not been offered, but I still sometimes 

 notice a bird or two in the vicinity. One seen so late as 25th 

 October, in 1889, was busily engaged in stripping the berries off a 



