76 



BIRDS. 



series of their eggs — most of which were obtained in Torwood and 

 upon my own grounds (Forth) ; but I can scarcely credit their having 

 reached so far north at that time. 



It is now (1904) some fourteen years since Mr. T. B. Dobbie 

 resided in Perthshire, about four miles from Perth, and he informed 

 me that the Blackcap was then " anything but rare" ; and he adds : 

 "while I can only once remember having found the nest of the 

 Garden- Warbler " (see Garden-Warbler, infra). 



In the season 1893-4 a female was added to the collection at the 

 Perth Museum — "not before represented." It was obtained on 

 November 11 by a Mr. Macgregor, and had been feeding upon 

 elder-berries. 



In 1899 Mr. Nichol Simpson considers it to be of only local value 

 as a breeding species in Kincardineshire. He once picked up a 

 specimen on the highroad after a blizzard early in the year 1899, 

 but he gives no exact date. 



Millais, however, does not appraise its present value so highly. 

 He says : " A scarce summer visitor. 1 have often heard him singing in 

 the orchards at Barn Hill, Perth, where a pair or two commonly breed." 



The Rev. Mr. M'Connochie describes the song of a bird he listened 

 to in Guthrie Castle grounds upon two occasions, " a little like the 

 song of the Whitethroat, but almost as mellow as a Blackbird," and 

 describes the songster as keeping high up among the tree-tops, and 

 singing about the 7th of June. 



Mr. Berwick includes it as a summer migrant {i.e. visitor), and as 

 breeding in north-east Fife. 



Sylvia salicaria {L,). Garden-Warbler. 



Summer visitant. Not yet of very general dispersal throughout 

 the area, but is an advancing species in several directions, as 

 Col. Drummond Hay designated its value, when he wrote : " Less 

 widely spread than many others of our spring Warblers " ; and 

 he at that time placed along with it in the same category the 

 Tree-Pipit (v. "On Migration," Scot. Nat, vol. iii. p. 286).i The 

 Garden- Warbler was also seen by Col. Drummond Hay as far up 

 the valley of the Tay as Pitlochry in 1879. 



In 1895 Mr. John Cordeaux recorded it in Perthshire {Anmls 

 Scot. Nat. Hist., 1895, p. 251). 



In 1896 Mr. John Eobertson, Thornliebank, observed the species 



^ This is an excellent paper running through four consecutive numbers of the 

 Scot. Nat. 



