356 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



neighbourhood where it occurs every season. It is not as common as the 

 Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla, and is found in the same kind of places as 

 this bird — namely, small woods and bramble-thickets, and to a less extent 

 in large woods. I have found the Garden Warbler to be one of the shyest 

 of birds. It appears to have the greatest objection to being seen, and were 

 it not for its beautiful, loud warble, it would be very difficult to find. I have, 

 however, often obtained a good view of it by means of a binocular glass and 

 careful stalking; and the three or four specimens I have wanted for myself 

 and friends I have obtained without difficulty. Its song is to be heard here 

 from the last week in April to the first week in July. I have found a good 

 many of its nests near Brecon, and, knowing the likeness of its eggs to those 

 of the Blackcap, have always used great care in identifying the species. 

 The eggs I have found here have been much of one type, lighter in colour 

 than those of the Blackcap, and not, as a rule, likely to be mistaken for them. 

 The chief difference is, however, in the nest, which in the case of the Garden 

 Warbler I have found to be a plain grass-stalk structure, with very little 

 hair-lining, and not ornamented with moss, cobwebs, and roots, as the nest 

 of the Blackcap generally is. In 1887 I found a Garden Warbler's nest in 

 an unusual situation — namely, in a little beech tree, about five feet from 

 the ground. This nest, with one of the four eggs it contained, is now in 

 the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. A pair or two of this 

 species nest yearly in a wood and large shrubbery within a hundred and fifty 

 yards of this house, and I hear them singing almost daily from my garden 

 in the season. This year one of their nests was placed in a blackthorn- 

 bush in the above-mentioned wood, and contained four eggs, the first of 

 which was only laid on the 19th June. I have also observed the Garden 

 Warbler in several parts of Radnorshire. Mr. Harting, in ' Our Summer 

 Migrants,' expresses the hope that naturalists will examine into the truth 

 of the alleged absence from Wales of this bird, and publish the result of 

 their investigations. I trust they will do so, and that this fine songster 

 will be found to visit other Welsh districts besides those above mentioned. 

 Another summer migrant, the Lesser Whitethroat, Sylvia curruca, is 

 generally described as being very rare in Wales. I became well acquainted 

 with this little bird and its song in South Shropshire, where it is rather 

 common, and find it pretty evenly distributed in suitable places in the 

 neighbourhood of Brecon. The usual date of its arrival here is in the 

 third week of April. It can hardly be called common, but I could 

 point to at least a dozen different localities where it can be heard and 

 perhaps seen near Brecon. I have obtained here two specimens which 

 I wished for without difficulty. Like most of the summer songsters, it 

 is far oftener heard than seen, but the quivering trill which forms the 

 end of its song is so loud that its presence is betrayed at a long distance. 

 I have now and then, when within three or four yards of this bird, heard 



