The Lesser Whitethroat in the Ovter Hebrides. 161 



East Lothian in 1855, and died at Aldridge, near Walsall, 

 Staffordshire, only last August." 



Mr Service tells me that it is a rare summer visitor to 

 Dumfriesshire, and that he has found two nests in that 

 county, but that the bird is seldom met with in Kirk- 

 cudbrightshire. 



In arriving at the summarised conclusions given below, I 

 have carefully considered the evidence that is afforded by 

 these original sources of information. I consider that a 

 small proportion only of what has been recorded is really 

 satisfactory and will stand the test of a searching examina- 

 tion from all standpoints. Some of the records are bare 

 statements, unaccompanied by details or other testimony in 

 support of their accuracy. Others are based upon evidence 

 of the very slightest nature, and are only to be regarded as 

 possibilities rather than probabilities. Others, again, are 

 undoubtedly cases of erroneous identification, the common 

 species of Whitethroat having been mistaken for the rarer. 

 Most of the statements, good, bad, and indifferent, have been 

 reproduced again and again in the literature quoted — though 

 not reproduced here — and in general works on British birds, 

 until they have come, by sheer force of reiteration, to be 

 regarded as established facts. 



To sum up, the following are the conclusions I have 

 arrived at concerning the Lesser Whitethroat as a Scottish 

 bird : — 



(1) It cannot be regarded as a summer visitor to south- 

 eastern Scotland, sixty years having elapsed since the two 

 reputed and only instances of the bird's breeding in the area 

 were recorded. Since that date we have no positive evidence 

 of its occurrence during the summer. (2) The species occurs 

 sparingly along the eastern seaboard and its vicinity as a 

 bird of passage,^ specimens having been obtained at intervals 

 in the autumn (when collectors are on the alert) between 

 Unst, the northern isle of Shetland, and Berwick-on-Tweed. 

 It is during the migratory period alone that specimens have 

 been obtained. (3) It is a rare and extremely local summer 



1 The Lesser Whitethroat is a summer visitor to central and southern 

 Scandinavia. 



