; 



THE GARDEN WARBLER. 73 



tions of Macgillivray and Sir William Jardine ; but 

 we have yet to learn whether it penetrates to the 

 Highlands, or visits the Hebrides. According to 

 Selby it is found throughout the greater part of 

 Scotland ; but Mr. Robert Gray is disposed to think 

 that it is not commonly distributed. It is, as he says, 

 very difficult to judge of the comparative numbers 

 of so shy a bird, as it is even less frequently noticed, 

 save by the patient observer, than some other species 

 of greater rarity. " In the sheltered and wooded 

 districts of the midland and southern counties," he 

 adds, "it is one of the most attractive songsters, 

 tuning its loud and gleeful pipe on the top of some 

 fruit tree an hour or two after daybreak, and again 

 bout dusk. These love-notes, however, are not of 

 long continuance, for the bird becomes silent after 

 the young are hatched, unless a second brood is 

 reared, when the same wild, yet mellow, Blackbird- 

 like song is again for a short time heard." Mr. 

 Sinclair has observed the Garden Warbler at 

 Inverkip, in Renfrewshire, where the richly-wooded 

 preserves afford it a constant shelter during its 

 summer sojourn. 



In Shetland, according to the late Dr. Saxby, 



