92 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



till one is lost in wonder at their numbers, so startling to the 

 ear of a stranger, so impossible to be estimated at all during the 

 day." 



Mr Stevenson describes a number of the pensile nests of this 

 species taken in a garden near the river-side; one of these was 

 hung in a currant-bush, and had several rich clusters of fruit 

 hanging over it. The structure is generally suspended between 

 three reeds, but sometimes two or four. One mentioned by Mr 

 Stevenson had even five stems interwoven through the nest. 



OBS. The nightingale (Philomela, luscinia) is believed to have 

 been met with in at least two instances north of the Tweed. The 

 first is thus alluded to in Macgillivray's British Birds: "In a 

 letter with which I am favoured by Mr Eobert D. Duncan, is the 

 following notice: ' The nightingales arrived in Calder wood, in 

 West Lothian, in the early part of the summer of 1826. I cannot 

 remember so far back, but creditable eye and ear- witnesses, on 

 whose testimony implicit reliance may be placed, gave me the 

 information. Before and about midnight, while the full moon 

 shone bright and clear, the superior warble of the male was first 

 heard, which soon attracted a number of admiring individuals, 

 who hastened to the spot, supposing it at first to be a scape- 

 canary. The owner of the wood was extremely anxious to pre- 

 serve them, thinking, perhaps, that they might propagate; but 

 with all his care and attention, some malicious and selfish indi- 

 viduals attempted to take them with bird-lime, but failing in 

 their efforts, they afterwards shot the male, upon which the 

 female left the wood.' " In this case it is possible that some 

 other bird, such as the sedge warbler, black cap, or garden warbler 

 (although the two latter do not, so far as I am aware, sing at 

 midnight) may have been mistaken for the nightingale, and that 

 the lateness of the hour, not to speak of the " full moon," may 

 have helped the deception. The second instance is given in Turn- 

 bull's "Birds of East Lothian," wherein it is stated that the night- 

 ingale was heard near Dalmeny Park, Mid-Lothian, in June, 1839. 



In the belief that migratory songsters returned to their native 

 haunts in the breeding season, an attempt was made, many 

 years ago, by Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, Baronet, to introduce 

 nightingales into Caithness-shire, by placing eggs which had been 

 transmitted from the neighbourhood of London, in the nests of 

 robin redbreasts. The foster parents managed satisfactorily to 



