THE SYLVIID^E OF SOLWAY. 141 



As already indicated, the annual numbers of this species vary 

 much with us. I have known summers in which it was scarcely 

 seen, and others, such as 1903, when it was fairly abundant. 

 Any enquiry into the yearly numbers of such species as this 

 is a neglected branch of ornithology, and one the elucidation 

 of which would lead to valuable results. 



No other of our birds (with an exception presently to be 

 noted) so defies close scrutiny as this bird. We may, if hidden 

 in the undergrowth before the bird comes into the thicket, 

 snatch a few minutes' close observation before it sees one, but 

 the chances are against even this. Put the glasses on an in- 

 dividual, and the next moment the bird will get behind a leaf, 

 or slip through the nearest bit of dense vegetation, and hardly 

 a twig will move, so smoothly does it thread its way. 



I have never known of more than one brood in the season, 

 and somehow both parents and young move off so silently after 

 fledging that it is only on comparatively rare occasions that 

 I have been able to note autumnal appearances. 



There is strong evidence that this and some other Sylviidae 

 have greatly increased, and are still increasing in numbers. 

 Amongst other evidence that is available, I may instance that 

 of Dr. Heysham, in whose time the Garden Warbler was a rarity, 

 who found his first nest at Botchergate, only a mile or two over 

 our boundary, on 2nd June, 1797. 



III.— The Lessee Whitethroat. 



(Sylvia curruca.) 



This is a most elusive species. Much as I have desired it 

 during these last few years, I have been unable to " collect " 

 a specimen ! And yet I have seen and heard it, but without 

 acquiring the tangible and irrefragable evidence of a skin. 



WTien I was a boy I found one nest of the Lesser Whitethroat 

 in the fork of a branch of a hazel bush overhanging the Cargen 

 Pow, on the farm of Conhuith, an egg from which I still have 

 in my collection. In later years I had the pleasure of examin- 

 ing a nest of young on Dalscairth, some three miles from 

 Dumfries, and at various dates I have both seen and heard 

 this species. The late Rev. H. A. Macpherson and others have 

 found this bird breeding in Eskdale, where its status, I believe, 



