90 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



birds, save perhaps the skylark, are hushed, it appears to take 

 a pleasure in hurrying over its vigorous batch of notes with as 

 much vivacity as if instigated by the most brilliant sunshine. I 

 have heard this bird singing briskly at all hours of the night in 

 the neighbourhood of Glasgow, especially on the banks of the 

 Kelvin, and on the fringed edges of quarry holes, which are cer- 

 tainly far from inviting to a bird of its lively habits. It is found, 

 perhaps, nowhere more numerously than on the banks of the 

 Water of Girvan, in Ayrshire. Frequently, when fishing on that 

 stream, I have observed one of these warblers threading his way 

 quietly through an alder thicket by the water side, peeping inquisi- 

 tively at times as he halted a moment on the outside before flying 

 to another bush. Just as he saw he was recognised, he would 

 pour forth a volley of strains not unlike the mild twitterings of a 

 swallow, changing the notes all at once to the pink pink of an 

 angry chaffinch, or the cherJc of some impudent cock-sparrow; then 

 he would dart to the summit of the bush, and show oft' his full 

 powers of mimicry, like a little feathered Merry Andrew, dancing 

 on his pliant perch, and wheeling round so comically that nothing 

 in bird-life could be more diverting. But ordinarily he courts 

 solitude in the thickest shrubs, generally beside some marsh or 

 deep river-pool, remaining in these silent places for many hours 

 without indicating his presence. Occasionally, however, he may 

 be tempted into a musical performance, by the observer throwing 

 a stone into his haunts. At first a low churr is heard, succeeded 

 by chip chow cherry, then off he sets into the drollest imitation of 

 the notes of his e very-day associates, at the end of which he jumps 

 to the top of the bush, causing the onlooker to wonder how so 

 slender a little fellow could have furnished an entertainment so 

 varied. 



The nest of this species is generally placed in a low bush, within 

 eighteen inches or two feet from the ground. It is somewhat 

 oblong in shape, and the structure is deeper than that of the com- 

 mon whitethroat. Mr Sinclair showed me two nests last summer 

 in a wood near Inverkip, Renfrewshire; they were close to the 

 public road, and were each built in the crowning tuft of an old 

 whin bush. We measured the height of both from the ground, 

 the one being five feet, and the other two inches less. In these 

 cases the tall bushes, having their stems bare to a height of two 

 or three feet, moved freely when rocked by the wind. 



