GARDEN WARBLER. 729 



SYLVIA IIORTEXSIS. THE GARDEN AV^ARBLER. 

 Vol. II, p. 345. 



" The Garden Warbler," Mr Hepburn writes, " is pretty 

 generall}' distributed in East Lothian, and is especially abun- 

 dant in the plantations and thickets on the brink and at the 

 foot of the old red sandstone cliff's in the Glen of the Whitting- 

 ham Water. I never observed it until the 11th of May 1839, 

 when one alighted near me on the margin of Pressmenan Lake. 

 As a songster I think it superior to all our Scottish birds. For 

 about a month after its arrival, you may advance within six or 

 seven yards of it, as it flies amongst the broad leaves, snatch- 

 ing its prey, and boldly replying to the rival notes of its fellows, 

 which at intervals fill the whole glen with their Avild warblings. 

 I have found its nest in tall hedgerows, sloe thickets, and 

 amongst the branches of young spruce and hawthorn trees, at 

 a few feet from the ground. Sometimes it was very indiffer- 

 ently concealed. The young are mostly fledged by the begin- 

 ning of July ; but some broods not before the end of that 

 month. If you approach a nest containing young, the parents 

 shew themselves at first, but soon retreat to the thickest shade, 

 uttering a note resembling the syllable chech^ check. The song 

 of this species ceases about the middle of July. The last bird 

 which I saw was on the 7th of August." 



SYLVIA GARRULA. THE AVHITE-BREASTED WARBLER, 

 OR LESSER WHITETIIROAT. Vol. II, p. 357. 



" After many unsuccessful attempts," Mr AVeir writes to me, 

 " I at length succeeded, on Thursday forenoon, the 13th of 

 June 1839, in discovering the nest of the Lesser Whitethroat in 

 the midst of a plantation about fifty yards from my garden. It 

 was built in a tuft of windlestraw grass, Aira cocspitosa, of the 

 preceding year''s growth, about four inches from the ground, 

 and overshadowed by the branches of a larch tree. It is small- 

 er and more compact than that of the larger Whitethroat, and 



