BIRDS. 



243 



local. Edward speaks of it as ' comparatively rare,' and ' it is 

 only of late years this bird has visited us. Harvie-Brown found it 

 common at the river-side at Rothiemay and down the Deveron 

 to Banff. 'First heard singing on 16th May 1890, close to our 

 inn-window, which overlooks the river at Rothiemay, and a 

 thicket of alder and willow bushes." First heard on 13th May at 

 Westerton (M. D.i) in 1889. They did not sing at all in May 1891, 

 though the birds were seen every day ; they attempted it once or 

 twice, but failed. On the 17th May that year we had the ' Gowk 

 Storm,' — or, as it is also locally termed, * The Gap o' May,' — and 

 snow lay six inches deep. The weather was cold and ungenial, and 

 the birds generally very silent. In ordinary summers the Sedge 

 AVarbler sings 'bravely the whole summer night through, in the 

 middle of bushes by the side of the Bogie and Deveron ' (aud. 

 Dr. J. 0. Wilson). 



The Sedge Warbler is however sufficiently local to warrant 

 some detailed particulars. We observed it and heard it sing first 

 upon the 23rd May 1884 at Aberlour. It breeds all along the 

 Laigh of Moray between Forres and Elgin, and we saw eggs in 

 Mr. Mackessack's - collection at Xewton Struthers, near Forres. 

 Later in the season — about the end of June — Mr. J. Backhouse 

 observed a single bird in the plantation at Dalwhiunie, but that 

 gentleman was under the impression that it did not stay more 

 than two or three days. This is significant of migration, the 

 plantation at Dalwhinnie being a good point for observation of 

 migrants in July or August. Mr. Backhouse heard it sing on one 

 or two days, and saw it once. 



Though far from universally distributed, yet many localities 

 have been recorded by competent observers amongst the lower- 

 lying tracts. Mr. Wra. Evans of Edinburgh records it from Crom- 

 dale on Spey, and we have met with it as far up Spey as Kingussie, 

 and some years ago at Laggan ; but it is not usually found at any 

 great elevation above the valley. In 1890, our friend Mr. C. H. 

 Alston found it nesting in Badenoch, taking one nest, and seeing 

 and hearing several other pairs of the birds. 



^ i.e. Middle Deveron ; see Physical Aspects, antea, p. 110. 



- Mr. J. Mackessack of Newton Struthers, who deserves the thanks of all orni- 

 thologists for the strict preservation he accorded to the Pallas' Sandgrouae, which 

 frequented his ground in large numbers. 



