94 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



when insect food is scarce, can subsist on the smaller fruits, while 

 the swallow is wholly insectivorous, while under my own observa- 

 tion the Blackcap fed principally on the berries of the mountain 

 ash." 



THE GARDEN WARBLER. 

 CURRUCA HORTENSIS. 



ACCORDING to Mr Selby, the Garden Warbler is found over the 

 greater part of Scotland, but I am disposed to think that it is not 

 commonly distributed. It is, however, very difficult to judge of 

 the comparative numbers of so shy a bird, as it is even less 

 frequently noticed, save by the patient observer, than some other 

 species of greater rarity. In the sheltered and wooded districts 

 of the midland and southern counties, it is one of the most attrac- 

 tive songsters, tuning its loud yet gleeful pipe on the top of some 

 fruit tree, an hour or two after daybreak, and again about the 

 dusk of the evening. These love notes, however, are not of long 

 continuance, for the bird becomes silent after the young are 

 hatched, unless a second brood is reared, when the same wild yet 

 mellow, blackbird-like song is again for a short time heard. 



Mr Sinclair has observed the Garden Warbler at Inverkip, 

 Renfrewshire, where the richly wooded preserves afford it a 

 constant shelter during its summer sojourn. His attention was 

 arrested two or three summers ago by hearing the song of the 

 male in one of the village gardens, and also from the summit of a 

 cluster of trees near the railway station. Being an exceedingly 

 timid creature, it is easily alarmed; even when in full song, it will 

 stop suddenly on hearing the slightest noise or disturbance, and 

 drop at once almost to the ground, where it quickly threads its 

 way out of sight among the bushes or tangled herbage. 



Like the preceding species, the Garden Warbler freely partakes 

 of small ripe fruits, such as currants, etc., as a change from its 

 usual insect food. 



Dr Saxby mentions that a specimen of this bird was obtained 

 at Baltasound, Shetland, on 30th September, 1861. 



