52 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOAY. 



• 



*' it is not uncommon in roadside plantations near Glasgow," is 

 entirely unconfirmed. In ^Mr. Heniy 0. Young's "List of Birds 

 Avbich breed in the Vicinity of Glasgow," in the Notes on the 

 Fauna and Flora of the West of Scotland (Glasgow, 1876), the 

 only statement regarding the occurrence of the Chiff-chaff is that 

 just quoted from Gray. The statement in Gray's article on "The 

 Birds of Glasgow and its Vicinity," in the publication last named, 

 that the " Chiff-chaff is moderately common in hedges a short 

 distance westwards from the Botanic Gardens," however cate- 

 gorical, is a curious one. 



Referring to the occurrence of this species in the districts 

 bordering on the Clyde area, we know it to abound at Castle 

 Kennedy, Wigtownshire {Report, Excursion Andersonian 

 Naturalists^ Society, 20th May, 1897). In Kirkcudbrightshire 

 it is "everywhere scarce and local" (Robert Service, The 

 Vertebrate Zoology of Kirkcudbrightshire, 1896). In Dum- 

 friesshire Mr. Service informs me that he thinks it is scarcer 

 than in Galloway. 



In the area drained by the Forth, Mr. Evans tells me he knows 

 of it "as a regular summer visitor to the extreme east and 

 extreme west" (7th August, 1896). 



In Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley's Vertebrate Fauna of 

 Argyll and the Inner Hebrides (1892) it is excluded. 



Summarising its distribution in "Clyde," it is, as far as we know 

 at present, most numerous in the west of the area, and especially 

 so in the south-west. This agrees with its abundance in Wigtown- 

 shire (Sol way area) at Castle Kennedy, as recently announced. 

 East of Glasgow it appears to be rare, and this agrees with its 

 small numbers in Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbrisfhtshire. It is 

 interesting, in connection with its distribution in the area under 

 review, to bear in mind that it breeds in every Irish county, and, 

 while scarce in some eastern English counties, Norfolk for instance, 

 it is numerous in the south and south-west, especially in Somerset- 

 shire and Devonshire. 



