74 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



bailloni (Vieillot), v in somewhat immature plumage. This appears to be 

 the first occurrence recorded for Nottinghamshire.— Leonard Buttress 

 (Grove, near Retford, Notts). 



Lesser Whitethroat in County Durham. — Early one morning, at the 

 beginning of last June, I heard a bird, in the garden outside, whose song 

 was quite new to me. I went out before breakfast to see it, but, though I 

 caught a glimpse of the warbler, I could not identify it, and, although it 

 kept singing constantly, its song only puzzled me as to the species. It 

 proved itself a most difficult bird to observe, as its habit was to sit motion- 

 less amongst a clump of green leaves, singing the while, and generally 

 highish up in a sycamore or beech tree. Then, as one approached and 

 peered up, it would at once betake itself to a similar situation, perhaps a 

 hundred yards away. The difficulty of getting a glimpse of it was thus 

 prolonged for nearly a week, although it remained in the garden all the 

 time. We had frequent discussions at home as to what it was. Knowing 

 nothing of its song, and not being able to see the bird, hopes of some rare 

 straggler would enter one's head ; eventually, however, it proved to be 

 nothing more thau a Lesser Whitethroat. Some of my southern readers 

 may laugh at my want of knowledge of the song and habits of a bird which 

 is so common with them ; but the bird is very rare in these parts of our 

 northern counties where I happen to have been ; so uncommon is it that, 

 with the exception of a solitary nest found by one of us more than twenty 

 years ago, in a district then uncontaminated by pit-smoke, we have never 

 come across the bird at all. Its song was as new to me as if it had been 

 another Icterine warbler, which turned up and was identified in a garden 

 near Newcastle, some few years ago. Why it is so rare with us I cannot 

 say, but it is my opinion that the Lesser Whitethroat is one of the rarest 

 warblers in the north-east corner of England. — Alfred C. Chapman 

 (Moor House, Leamside). 



[Owing to its somewhat skulking habits, Sylvia curruca is liable to be 

 overlooked ; but even where sought for, by practised ornithologists, its 

 distribution is apparently capricious, and the reasons are, in many cases, as 

 yet unexplained. Like several other Warblers, this species becomes 

 scarcer as we proceed westward, and Messrs. D'Urban and Mathew evi- 

 dently do not believe in the positive assertions published in this Journal for 

 1891 (pp. 273, 309) respecting its nesting in Devonshire. It may, however, 

 be extending its range westward, for, whereas it was first recorded as a 

 breeder in Breconshire in 1886, we find Mr. Swainson writing of it in 1891 

 (Zool. p. 355) as " pretty evenly distributed in suitable places in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Brecon"; he also says that it is rather common inSouth 

 Shropshire. Of the southern, eastern, and midland counties we may say, 

 broadly, that the species is tolerably abundant, though trustworthy local 

 details are much to be desired ; while " generally distributed, though in 



