RARK BIRDS IN ABERDEKNSHIRR. 211) 



a running full set of notes, which have given rise to his name *^Sibilatrix" or 

 ^'Sibilous." His usual call is a melancholy pea, pea, pea. 



The Garden Warbler, which I shall take notice of last under this bead, is 

 a very rare bird, and perhaps the more so that he is very difficult to be seen 

 or come at. He possesses the power of mimicry to a great extent, and in 

 this respect treads very closely upon the heels of the Blackcap. I consider 

 them as a sort of link between the Willow Wrens and Whitethroats, as they 

 are not totally unlike either, and I have placed them here for want of a 

 better association. The best description I can give of him is, that if you see 

 a bird which you doubt being a Whitethroat, or hen Black-cap, and at last 

 come to the conclusion he is neither, but exceedingly like both, set him dowa 

 as a Garden Warbler. I do not think it at all likely however that you will 

 be called upon to decide so disputed a question, for he is uot easily found 

 even by those who search for him diligently, and is considered of value in 

 collections. All the Willow Wrens have one mode of nesting, namely, on 

 the ground, and domed or arched over with dry grass and moss, and lined 

 with moss and a little hair, and a feather occasionally. The eggs are usually 

 five or six, white, spotted with red* those of the Wood Wren being the 

 darkest and most spherical. This retreat is generally very well concealed, and 

 if discovered it is not an unfrequent occurrence for the bird to strew loose 

 materials, such as moss, grass, etc., over and around it, so that when you come 

 to the place you may be considerably puzzled to find it. The Gardea Warbler 

 builds a nest very much like the Black-cap — deep and partially transparent, 

 of dry grass and horse-hair, and lays four or five dull brown eggs. 



The Willow Wrens are certainly a most sprightly race, and fill our woods 

 with as much hilarity as the green leaves do with beauty. The cold autumn 

 weather dispirits them immediately, and they become sad and silent. The 

 all-important and engrossing duties of incubation no doubt take up a great 

 portion of their attention, but they flutter out their little hour very soon, and 

 leave us, as we are chilled by the warnings of winter to the solitude of sound 

 which that dead season cannot but engender. 



lAncolns-Inn-Fields, ISoS. 



RARE BIRDS, ETC., OCCURRING IN ABERDEENSHIRE. 



BY JOHN LONGMUIR, ESQ., JUN. 

 ( Oontiniied from Vol. II., page 239.^ 



White-tailed Sea- Eagle, (Haliscetos albicilla.) — Not having seen the specimen, 

 to which allusion is made in the July number of ''The Naturalist," page 139, 

 which is stated to have measured "fourteen feet from tip to tip of the wings," 

 I had no opportunity, personally , of ascertaining whether this was correct. Mr. 

 Alexander Mitchell prepared the specimen, however, and, although he took 

 no accurate measurement of the part, informed me that it could uot possibly 



