2*70 Montlily Calendar of i^ahire for Scotland. 



The bird is a great singer, and flies from tree to tree in search of insect* ; 

 it is distributed over the whole country,, wherever trees or bashes are t» 

 be found ; the young are o£ a brighter yellow than the old birds j the nests, 

 I think, are always on the ground ; the eggs are seven or eight, or perhaps 

 more, and their colour is white, spotted with red. The whitethroat sings 

 jerking up in the air, it erects the feathers on its head, swells out its throat, 

 and makes a peculiar noise when you approach its nest, which it forms of 

 dry stalks of grass and long hairs, in a low bush. I have found the bags of 

 spiders in its nest. No others of this interesting group, as far as I can 

 judge, pay this district a visit, which, I assure you, I consider a very 

 great loss. The cuckoo is very common in this district ; I have seen six 

 or seven on one tree at a time. It makes a variety of changes in its note, 

 sometimes repeating the first syllable of its name two or three times, and 

 sometimes making a curious chatter, like the blackbird, but much louder 

 and stronger : it cries sometimes nearly all night in warm weather, and 

 also on the wing. It feeds on the ground at times ; lays chiefly in the tit- 

 lark's nest, which bird I have frequently seen feeding its large foster-child, 

 and showing much anxiety about it. The young cuckoo will sit, if undis- 

 turbed, a long time on the same stone or hedge, and will let both foster- 

 parents feed it frequently. The cuckoo arrives here the latter end of April, 

 and departs the last week of June ; the young remain sometimes till August, 

 The missel thrush sings occasionally before Christmas, and afterwards till 

 July ; its song resembles that of the throstle, but it is not, I think, so full 

 or sweet ; it builds its nest often in the fork of a tree, and sometimes in 

 the small branches near the top, it is very bold and clamorous in defence 

 of its eggs and young, fighting with and beating off* the magpie and other 

 enemies valiantly. It will even fly very near human beings, like the lap- 

 wing, screaming very much, and appearing greatly distressed : if it were 

 quieter, its nest would not be so easUy discovered. In this respect it differs 

 from the sweet songthrush, which steals almost unperceived from her nest : 

 I have seen fifteen of these birds in a flock in autumn. This delightful 

 songster plasters her nest inside with cow-dung. The blackbird delights 

 in singing in warm weather. The redwing thrush arrives about the middle 

 of October, and departs about the same time in April. — H. N. January t, 

 1831. 



Art. V. Montldy Calendar of Nature for Scotland. 



Extracts from the Meteorological Register, kept at Annat Gardens, Perth- 

 shire, North lat. 56° 23^', above the Level of the Sea 172 ft., and Fifteen 



. Miles from the Coast j being the Mean of Daily Observations taken at 

 Ten o'clock Morning and Ten o' Clock Evening. 



Results for February. 



The average temperature for February at this place is 39*5°. The mean 

 for that month this season is within a small fraction of a degree of the 



