140 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



then become excessively shy and inconspicuous in early autumn, 

 and they emigrate so unostentatiously that we seldom realise 

 them to have gone unless we go searching specially for them. 



In my experience I have never found the slim, thin, flimsy nests 

 that many writers describe this species as building. Most of 

 them are very substantially woven together, and I have never 

 seen any approach to the slight fabrics made by some Blackcaps 

 and Garden Warblers. 



II. — The Garden Warbler. 



(Sylvia hortensis.) 



The next bird on my list is one of great interest. There can 

 be no doubt, I think, that the annual abundance or the reverse 

 of the Garden Warbler depends on some meteorological influence 

 acting upon the migration movements. During the past season 

 of 1903, for instance, three pairs were under my daily observa- 

 tion in a rough, bushy part of one of our nursery grounds, where, 

 during most of June, from six o'clock in the morning, or earlier, 

 till after mid-day each day, the constant flood of melody that 

 came from these three males was astounding in its volume 

 and attractive of general notice. I never saw but one pair there 

 before, and none at all in most seasons. Last summer the same 

 thing happened very generally over our area. 



In no district is the Garden Warbler ever so numerous as the 

 Blackcap, and it does not, in the main, frequent the same haunts. 

 It is more a bird of rough shrubbery parts of policies and 

 gardens, and is not so often seen as the Blackcap in regular 

 copses and young plantations. It comes to us late in May — 

 in fact, early June is not too late for it. Its splendid outburst 

 of music is the usual announcement that it has arrived. To 

 my ear its song is far more melodious, richer, and finer than 

 that of the Blackcap. In saying this I know I am at variance 

 with many eminent authorities, most of whom, after the 

 Nightingale, rate the Blackcap as the finest British songster. 

 Be that as it may, personal predilections must be taken into 

 account. In most of the Garden Warbler's nests I have found, 

 the eggs have been visible through the structure, and from this 

 I opine that we in Solway have a somewhat peculiar race of 

 the species. 



