BIRDS. 103 



Mr. Moodie-Heddle says that a small warbler visits Mel- 

 setter, and from his description of its nest, it is most probably 

 the Willow Wren, though we saw nothing of it there our- 

 selves in 1888. 



At Binscarth, however, some six or seven miles from Kirk- 

 wall, we saw and heard several Willow Wrens in that year; 

 indeed they appeared quite common : of course this may have 

 been their first appearance there, though more likely it had 

 never been recognised. 



Sub-family ACROCEPHALIN&. 

 Acrocephalus phragmitis (Bechst.). Sedge Warbler. 



The first instance of the occurrence of this bird in Orkney seems 

 to have been in 1857, when the late Mr. Banken obtained one 

 on July 29th. 



Since then the species has become much commoner, and Mr. 

 T. W. Eanken says it has been frequently seen and heard at 

 Muddiesdale ; and Buckley, when in Eousay in 1883, considered 

 that there were about three pairs in the Westness garden. 



Mr. Irvine-Fortescue sends us notes on the occurrence of 

 the Sedge Warbler at Swanbister. Prior to 1881 he had never 

 seen or heard this bird in Orkney, but in that year he heard it 

 in some bushes near his house on May 2d, and, although the 

 birds remained all through that summer and again during the 

 two following ones, it was not until June 27th, 1884, that he 

 found the nest with young. Since then they have come 

 regularly every year and bred there. 



In 1886 a pair came to Grainbank for the first time, so that 

 it would appear that the species is still spreading. 



We found the Sedge Warbler fairly common at Melsetter 

 in Hoy, at least three pairs in 1888; and Mr. Moodie-Heddle 

 informed us they had bred them for over twenty years. 



