24 LOCH CRERAN. 



steady persistence of the new comer forced it to desist 

 most unwillingly. It must have been extremely aggra- 

 vated at the bird it first followed, as it never made the 

 smallest effort to touch the interloper. Probably the 

 little miscreant had removed, by greater quickness, a 

 titbit it had marked for its own. 



Passing the poet's garden we learned of a nest 

 and eggs of a character not well known in the district. 

 Through the rustic gates and along the strawberry 

 beds, now richly furnished, and aggravatingly ex- 

 tensive for the most strong-minded to traverse, we 

 pass, until at length, amid the heavily-laden gooseberry 

 bushes, we come to a halt Upon one of these, a foot 

 from the ground, the nest is placed, made of dried grass 

 and with fine greenish speckled eggs, most of the 

 marking being in a circle at the larger end. Our first 

 instinct is to say a "nettle creeper," from our boyish 

 recollections ; but the eggs are not quite the same. The 

 description of the bird is that of a whitethroat, however, 

 and such we have ourselves seen about the neighbour- 

 hood. On more careful consideration, we find it is the 

 nest of the lesser whitethroat (Curruca Sylviella\ the 

 nest of which resembles that of C. Cinerea in being made 

 of hay or very dry grass, from which we understand it 

 derives its name of haychat, under which it is known in 

 some southern counties. The eggs in this nest are quite 

 cold and clearly deserted, and as another similar has 

 been built near by, from which a brood was safely 

 hatched, we all conclude the same pair had removed 

 thither a predacious cat that had haunted this corner 

 having alarmed the parental breast. The sympathetic 

 gardener evidently has considerable misgivings as we 

 remove the deserted nest and eggs, but had he seen us 



