The Breeding of the Garden Warbler. 187 



The male presently arrived, with a green-drake fly in his 

 mouth, and both birds being excited about my proximity to 

 their nest, gave me opportunities of seing them perfectly — the 

 olive brown head and back, the slightly paler mark over the 

 eye, the buff tinge on the throat and breast, and the white 

 underparts. They used to come into a Wild Cherry when I 

 withdrew, and I was convinced their nest was in the briars 

 near, but I failed to find it until I had been absent for a while. 

 On returning, I saw the bird in the cherry bush, and then 

 alighting among the briars at a point where I believed these 

 to be too low to hold the nest : but here it was, composed of 

 grass stems exclusivel}^ and containing four partially fledged 

 young, which on my nearer approach quitted the nest, and it 

 was with much difficulty that I secured one for the Museum 

 by searching among the herbage on the ground. I heard the 

 Garden Warbler's song in four places at Ca.stle Forbes, 

 evidently uttered by different birds, each of which keeps to 

 his own haunt. I subsequently heard a bird of this species 

 singing repeatedly for a long time from a neighbouring bush, 

 while inspecting the picturesque ruins of the Seven Churches 

 on Innishcleraun or Quaker Island, belonging to Co. I^ongford, 

 in the northern part of lyough Ree, and in a different part of 

 the same island, where great masses of Hawthorns and briars 

 formed towering fences, I heard both the song and the warn- 

 ing note. After this I heard a Garden Warbler singing in a 

 plantation near the house at Derrycarne, in the Co. Leitrim, 

 on another of the lake expansions of the Shannon. 



The farthest point I reached was Hollybrook, in Co. Sligo, 

 on lyough Arrow. This beautiful demesne, lying between the 

 mountain and the lake, contains the most picturesque and 

 varied natural jungles, mingled in places with rhododendrons, 

 and introduced species of trees. Here I heard the Garden 

 Warbler's song in two places, in each of which it was as usual 

 repeated, morning and afternoon, day after day, leaving no 

 doubt that the birds were settled and breeding there. Mrs. 

 Ffolliott writes on the 17th June: — ''The Garden Warblers 

 have been singing continuously the last few days, up near the 

 house." 



During my several observations of them I have seen the 

 birds at different times, and they always agreed with the 

 specimens shot at Castle lyough, and were not Blackcaps, 



