578 Summer Ramble in Chirnside Woods. By C. Stuart. 



fashion, seeking for insects. The bird is sufficiently uncommon to make 

 it an interesting subject for study. It is sometimes seen in the gardens of 

 Chirnside village, having no doubt come from Whitehall, but since the 

 severe frost of 1880, the Creeper is much more uncommon. At the Steeple 

 Heugh, a striking-looking scaur, overhanging the Whitadder, and at least 

 100 feet above the bed of the stream, the Stock Dove, Palumbus cenaft, 

 has taken up its quarters, and this is a new station for this bird. However, 

 last season I also found it at Ninewells and Broomhouse, six miles farther 

 up the river. At the garden entrance to Ninewells in the steep bank, 

 overhanging the Mill Dam, one was observed to fly out of a rabbit burrow, 

 the nest however could not be reached, as it was situated too far into the 

 hole, to be got at. Overhead among the leafy planes, the Garden Warbler, 

 Sylvia hortensis, was in full song; and a little farther on, the Wood 

 Warbler, Sylvia sylvicola, was gaily singing. At the Rock Garden by the 

 river the Eedstart in grand plumage, gave us a good opportunity of seeing 

 him at his best. Hj was in full plumage, and well worth looking at. The 

 Spotted Flycatcher was hawking for midges from the pendant hawthorns, 

 and as we left the banks, the Garden Warbler was in full song among the 

 lofty oaks near the mansion. In farther extension of our ramble, we did 

 not come upon the Black-cap, Sylria ntricapilla, although the bird could not 

 be far off. The route to the Pistol Plantings, Blackadder, was now taken ; 

 where the Tree Pipit, and Wood Wren or Warbler, especially the latter 

 were very abundant. Every tree in this- fine woodland seemed to hold this 

 Warbler, whose mellifluous notes greeted the ear everywhere. The Heron, 

 Ardea cinerea, on the south side of this wood, builds annually about fifty 

 nests, and in spring when pairing it is not uncommon to see large parties 

 of these birds, standing in line in the fields consulting together. Opposite 

 to the new fox-cover at Broomdykes' Tile Works, the notes of the Sedge 

 Warbler were detected by Mr Evans ; we listened with pleasure to the 

 nightingale-like trill of this delightful bird, when out it flew from the 

 cover side, with its tail spread out, giving us a splendid view, while for a 

 few seconds it hovered, singing the while.* Here earlier in the season, I 

 had seen the Smaller Whitethroat. It was the hope that Mr Evans might 

 have had the luck to have identified the bird, that induced me to bring 

 him there. The leaves on the trees and the hedges, were so much out 

 however, that it became no very easy matter to find a very shy small bird 

 like this in the circumstances. When I saw it the leaves were not nearly 

 so fully out. At Huttonhall however he saw a pair of Tree Sparrows, a 

 new station for these birds. The Stock Doves are now very plentiful 

 about Edington, Huttonhall. and Hutton Bridge. Indeed so many of them 

 breed here, that they fly about the fields in colonies like the Pang Dove. 

 Passing on by the farms of Edington and Edington-hill, by the old road 

 leading to Foulden Hagg, the churr! churr ! charr! of the Whitethroat 

 was heard in a clump of roses. Both birds were making a great ado, and. 

 no wonder, for on close looking, their nest containing many young ones, 

 was detected. Considering their size the noise the old birds make when 

 disturbed, is something to hear! No prettier bird than the AVhitethroai 



