BIRDS. 



woods of considerable age composed of beech, oak, elm, aud other 

 hard-woods. The strength of its dispersal takes a narrower line than 

 the Willow-Warbler, aud with much more westerly trend, and 

 appears to be less active in reaching up the east coast lines north of 

 Forth and Clyde. 



Mr. Eedle says he found a nest in Kannoch in 1870 (ZooL, 1871, 

 p. 2656). 



It is common, however, along the low dividing watershed between 

 Stirling and Perth, as for instance at Moncreiife, Aberuthven Woods 

 (where / heJitird I saw it many years ago when staying at Cloanden 

 in old schooldays : but I don't give this as a record !). It is common 

 too in other parts of Lowland Perth, and has been traced as far up 

 the Tay valley as Faskally by Col. Drummond Hay. Mr. Marshall, 

 The Store, Stanley, obtained it himself on 20th May 1880, and a 

 specimen is in his collection. 



In the east and Strathmore it is rare, and Mr. J. .Milne cannot 

 feel any certainty as yet of its presence about his district. Dr. T. F. 

 Dewar considers it to be of " very doubtful occiu-rence, although 

 one or two of his correspondents are positive that it is present. 



Mr. Godfrey found only one pair, he says in his list, in 1903, 

 about three miles along the north side of Loch Earn fi'om the head 

 of the loch, and in 1904 one pair in the birch woods at Edinchip 

 (MS.). (This wood is not merely birch wood, but is mixed with 

 other hard-woods, through which I have shot on several occasions. — 

 J. A. H.-B.) 



Mr. W. Evans met with three or four in a wood at the east end 

 of Fearnan (1887). 



"NMiile it is perhaps nowhere so abundant in Tay as it is along 

 the west side of the Great Divide — i.e. as far up the west coast as, say, 

 to Arasaig in West Eoss— vet it is by no means uncommon in many 

 of the sheltered glens- of Perthshire, and in certain suitable kinds of 

 wooded areas. As Avill be seen also from Mr. Sim's Dee, it can 

 scarcely be called common north of the Great Divide of the Grampians, 

 or anywhere in Dee. 



Millais values it as "an increasing and now a common species"; and 

 adds. " numbers breed in the woods about Murthly and Dunkeld." 



Mr. Berwick includes it, but designates it "not common, but 

 found in old woods about Stravithie, Fife." 



I cannot speak with any personal certainty as to whether its 

 numbers vary in different seasons — as I believe to be the case -vnth 

 the Chiffchaff — but I certainly cannot look upon it as nearly so 



