BtRDS OF LAUDERDALE 321 



for these birds. The Moor-hen loves a slow and reedy stream. 

 Wagtails — Pied and Grey — ^visit and nest with us every year. 

 Reed-Buntings and Sedge- Warblers are met with here and there, 

 the polyglot song of the- latter being heard in the same place 

 where some members of the Club listened to it during a visit 

 to Lauder in 1886. 



Of SylviidcB and other smaller insectivorous birds that haunt 

 gardens and shrubberies we have quite our share. In one garden 

 I have seen the ^edge- Warbler, Willow- Wren, White-throat, 

 Redstart, Blackcap, Garden- Warbler, and Spotted Flycatcher. 

 Few Warblers within reach can resist the rasj)berry season. 

 One summer evening a strange experience with a young 

 Redstart befell myself. While reclining on a lounge chair, 

 planted well into a rhododendron clump, the bird came and 

 perched on one of my feet which was resting on the other. 

 There it sat for a little, looking up with its dark, lustrous 

 expressive eyes, until a slight movement sent it rapidly away. 

 Among less common birds the Tree-Sparrow sometimes visits the 

 grounds, generally in winter. Last January, heai'ing a new 

 song of wonderful variety, though low and broken, I was 

 pleased to Jfind, on approaching, that the notes came from one 

 of these birds perched on the spray of a low bush. The 

 cinnamon head, white cheeks, and daintier shape, make it 

 easily recognisable from the House variety. It is a much 

 shyer bii'd, and I have noticed that if at all alai-nied it rises 

 high into the air and flies rapidly away. We have all the 

 Swallow kind ,in their season. Sand-Martins nest in low 

 banks along Leader. Under the eaves of a shepherd's house 

 a good way into the Lannnermoor, we counted a summer ago 

 about forty nests of the House-Mar tin. Swifts circle with noisy 

 flight round the old Town-house, but their numbers are said 

 to have been greatly reduced since the passing of the thatched 

 building. 



Lauderdale is near enough to the sea to be within the range 

 of storm-driven sea birds. Guillemots and even the Little Auk 

 have been found in the district. Two or three kinds of Gull 

 on light and powerful wing easily surmount the barrier of the 

 Lammermoor. The noisy cry of the returning Blackheaded Gull 

 is a common sound of the springtime. One of their nesting 



