1890-91.] Birds of tJie Great Glen. 451 



years ago, I noticed a pair of twites building their nest on a 

 steep brae covered with heather, and while watching them 

 through a field-glass, another pair came up, and all four 

 apparently began to assist in raising the fabric. Unless 

 entirely deceived, this seems rather a curious incident, as one 

 would almost infer that it was a habit with this species. Of 

 course it may only have been an isolated instance, but being 

 able to produce another witness to the transaction, I deemed 

 it worth recording at any rate. Instances, besides, are on 

 record where two female twites laid their eggs in the same 

 nest, and after hatchiug, all four birds assisted in feeding the 

 young. 



Of the migratory warblers, the following may be included 

 in the list of summer visitors : blackcaps (scarce), garden 

 warbler, wood warbler, sedge warbler, whitethroat, and willow 

 warbler. For years back it never could be ascertained de- 

 finitely if the chiff-chaff had been noticed as a resident or 

 occasional visitant, but all doubts upon the point were set at 

 rest last June (1890), and this identification I consider the 

 most important item recorded this evening from an ornitho- 

 logical point of view. The chiff-chaff, so like the willow 

 warbler in outward aspect, has an entirely different and un- 

 mistakable note ; and although numerous in England, is ex- 

 ceedingly rare in the north of Scotland. It was with great 

 pleasure, therefore, that, when walking through the Pass of 

 Inverfarigaig during the month of June last, I both saw and 

 heard a pair. They were among a flock of tits and goldcrests 

 haunting a small fir-wood not very far from the spot where Dr 

 Bryce, the geologist, was killed, while upon an expedition 

 among the rocks of this most grand and pictiiresque of High- 

 land defiles. The pass runs inland to Strath-Errick from the 

 east side of Loch Ness, and is crossed at the entrance by the 

 old military road attributed to General Wade and his body of 

 engineers. Although possessing all the advantages of rock, 

 wood, and water, with an almost entire absence of human 

 dwellings, the variety of birds, though considerable, is as 

 nothing to what may be found in the more diversified glen 

 opposite, to which reference has been principally made. 



Mention may now be made of a few odd species that assist 

 in forming the list of feathered fauna. The spotted flycatcher 



