68 



On the Occurrence of the Lesser Whitethroat near Berwick. 

 By George Bolam, F.Z.S., Berwick-on-Tweed. 



I should like to draw the attention of the Club to the appearance 

 of the Lesser Whitethroat, Syl\:ia curruca (Linn.), in the district — 

 a matter of no small interest to ornithologists — and to the very great 

 probability (amounting indeed to a practical certainty) of its having 

 nested near Berwick daring the last year or two. As has already 

 been recorded in the Proceedings (Vol. x., p. 389), I shot two 

 immature examples of this rare North country bird in the garden at 

 Ravensdowne, on I4th and 26th September 1881 ; but often as it 

 has since been looked for on both sides of the Border, I have 

 never met with it in the district until as about to be mentioned 

 below. And I may here state that the credit for the discovery is 

 entirely due to the vigilance of our Organizing Secretary, Captain 

 Norman, than whom there is no one who has the interests of the 

 Club more at heart, nor the instincts of the true naturalist and 

 care£ul observer more deeply implanted in him. 



On 13th May 19U2, Captain Norman first wrote me saying that he 

 had, on the previous day, heard a Lesser Whitethroat singing in the 

 Plantation on the banks of the Tweed a short distance to the East of 

 Newwater Haugh, and little more than a mile from Berwick ; and here 

 on several subsequent occasions I had the pleasure of seeing and 

 hearing it with him. It was constantly under observation until near 

 the end of July, and was always met with in or about a large clump 

 of Sloe bushes, and from its behaviour there can be no reasonable 

 doubt that it nested there. In 1903 no Lesser Whitethroat was seen 

 there ; but on 11th May of the present year (1904) it was again in 

 evidence in the same clump of Blackthorn, and has been seen and 

 heard by both Captain Norman and myself on many different 

 occasions. Again there can be no doubt that it must have nested 

 there. 



While I am upon the subject it may be of interest to mention 

 that our member, Sir Edward Grey, informed me that on 9th May 

 1897 he and Lady Grey saw and heard a Lesser Whitethroat 

 at Fallodon, and again on 12th and 13th June 1900^ and on the latter 

 date he felt sure that it was building somewhere in the grounds, 

 though no nest was ever actually found. 



