TUB SYLVIID^. OP SOLWAY. 147 



It is not at all rare, but cannot be said to be of frequent 

 occurrence, and some apparently most suitable spots hold it not. 

 At one time I held the belief that it was found only in a few 

 of the furze-topped dells, filled with rough growths of nettles 

 and other rank vegetation, behind the openings of the cliffs 

 along shore. Later experience upset that view, for it is found 

 fully more numerously far inland, at the foot of ranges of hills 

 that environ the area of Solway on the north and west. Nor 

 is it a stranger in the intermediate country, but it shuns 

 cultivation. Specially favoured spots are young thickly grown 

 plantations of five or six years' growth. 



Soon after break of day is the most favourable time to see 

 and hear tliis somewhat curious bird. It will then show itself 

 freely, sitting on the top of some tall stem, and reeling its 

 strange song for a considerable time. 



That completes the very meagre list of the Sylviidse found, 

 as yet, in Solway. As compared with other parts of the British 

 Isles, we are not so badly off so far as breeding species are 

 concerned, for only three others are found elsewhere in the 

 kingdom. These are the Reed, the Marsh, and tiie Dartford 

 Warblers, and none of them is ever likely to cross the borders. 

 However, we in Solway are without a single record of the rare, 

 and scarce, visiting species that come along in the migration 

 streams. When remote outposts like the Shetlands and St. 

 Kilda have been visited by such good things as the Green Tree 

 Warbler and the Sub-Alpine Warbler, a large and important 

 area like that of Solway may well demur to the seeming neglect 

 with which Nature treats it in the matter of visiting Sylviidae ! 



