146 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



in their summer quarters? The Willow Warbler occurs, cer- 

 tainly, with both, but I have a strong idea, not positively 

 affirmed, that the Chiff Chaff and the Wood Warbler occupy 

 different grounds. 



Like most of the Sylviidiie, this species varies greatly in 

 numbers one year with another. It is the least abundant of 

 the genus Phylloscupus in Solway. 



VIII. — The Sedge Warbler. 

 ( Acrocephabis phrar/mitis. ) 



Is the only representative of the group of Sylviidne that break 

 the continuity of the sylvine habits of their congeners by 

 frequenting, more or less exclusively, the vicinity of marshes 

 and the banks of water courses. It is specially common 

 tliroughout Solway, where suitable haunts for it are so abun- 

 dant. During the later spring and the summer months it 

 enlivens, with its constant song and constantly visible move- 

 ments, many a spot that would otherwise be rather dreary. 



Its song is most characteristic, and differs widely from all 

 others. Were it not for the irritating habit of interpolating 

 a harsh, grating note every few bars, its song would rank as 

 the sweetest we have in Scotland. SjDecially grateful to the ear 

 is its sound when heard during the nocturnal hours in the 

 crepuscular light of our northern mid-summer, on the banks of 

 some wild and lonely moorland burn. 



A fact in the life-history of this species that I do not remember 

 having seen any allusion to is that, wherever there is an 

 extensive haunt, a party of about a score, or often more, of 

 non-breeding birds will generally be found consorting together 

 in a loosely attached flock throughout the whole season. 



IX. — The Grasshopper Warbler. 



(Locustella ncevia. ) 



A singular species, and the shyest and most retiring of all 

 our birds — one of which few, except bird students, ever notice 

 the existence. If Scotland was a country into which ornitholo- 

 gists were entering for the first time, how many years would 

 elapse before this species was discovered? 



