GARDEN-WARBLER. 401 



acquainted with the principal literary men of his day. Ray, in his pre- 

 face to the ' Oruithologia,' acknowledges his assistance in furnishing them 

 with descriptions and examples of rare birds from the neighbourhood of 

 Sheffield. Ray was his frequent guest at Broom Hall ; and Willughby 

 in his will made Ray and Jessop, together with three other gentlemen, 

 his executors. 



From the evidence to be gleaned upon the subject it would appear that 

 the Garden- Warbler and the Blackcap do not get on very well in the 

 same area. Rarely indeed do the two species occur in any great numbers 

 in the same district; and where the Garden- Warbler is abundant the 

 Blackcap seems always to be rare, and vice versa. The Garden-Warbler 

 is pretty generally distributed throughout England, except in the extreme 

 south-west, but becomes exceedingly local in Wales. It does not appear 

 to have ever been noticed in the Channel Islands. Authorities disagree 

 as to its abundance in Scotland, Selby, on the one hand, stating that it 

 occurs in all suitable districts throughout the greater part of the country ; 

 Gray, on the contrary, being inclined to believe that the bird is not so 

 commonly distributed. It has, however, been met with in most of the 

 midland and southern counties, from Banffshire southwards. Dr. Saxby 

 states that it is a rare autumn visitor to the Shetlauds, usually arriving in 

 September ; but it does not appear to have been observed in the Orkneys. 

 The bird is rare in Ireland, Thompson only noting its occurrence in the 

 counties of Cork and Tipperary ; but it has been met with in the 

 counties of Dublin, Wicklow, and Fermanagh; and Sir Victor Brooke 

 states that it nests regularly near Castle Caldwell, in the north-west of 

 the latter county. 



On the continent the geographical distribution of the Garden-Warbler 

 extends throughout Western Europe, and, like that of some other migrants, 

 becomes more and more restricted, both to the north and to the south, as 

 it progresses eastwards. In Norway the bird ranges as far north as lat. 

 70, in Finland and North-west Russia to lat. 65, and in the Ural Moun- 

 tains to lat. 59. I cannot find any evidence of its wintering in any part 

 of Europe and in Southern Italy and Greece it appears to be only found 

 in spring and autumn on migration. Eastwards, in Asia Minor, it has 

 only been recorded as passing through on migration ; but in Palestine 

 Canon Tristram says that it remains to breed. It is a summer visitor to 

 the Caucasus and the extreme north-west of Persia. The only evidence of 

 its occurrence east of the Ural Mountains are some examples in the 

 museum of Professor Slovzow at Omsk, said to have been procured in the 

 neighbourhood. It winters in West Africa and in the oases of the 

 Sahara ; but in Egypt it is only known to pass through on migration, and 

 has been obtained in our winter in Damara Laud, the Transvaal, and the 

 eastern portions of the Cape colony. 



VOL. i. 2 D 



