BIKDS. 



83 



common nor nearly so conspicuous in the east of Scotland north of 

 Forth and Clyde, as it is in the west of the country beyond Clyde. 



[Acrocephalus streperus {Vieill.). Reed-Warbler. 



Harting has it : " Very rare in Scotland " {Hand List, 2nd edition, p. 46). I 

 would be glad to accept it even on these terms. Mr. Nichol Simpson quotes 

 the statement Avithout remark. Mr. P. D. Malloch first started the account 

 of its presence, and over and over agMin reiterated the same — that it "breeds 

 in the marshes of Methven." I find it entered so in my journals of as long 

 ago as 1888 (p. 137, MS.). 



Dr. Dewar dismisses the above for any part of the district he has taken in 

 hand. 



And I may add there is not one authentic record of its presence or visita- 

 tion anywhere in Scotland to my knowledge. 



Mr. Geo. Bruce gives it quite solemnly {op. cit., p. 300) ; but in that par- 

 ticular case I saw the very eggs and nest he refers to, and the eggs were 

 typical Sedge-Warbler's eggs — certainly in an almost typical Eeed-Warbler's 

 nest ! The nest and eggs were sent to me most carefully packed up in a roll 

 of corrugated paper, and all as found — the nest built and suspended between 

 four or five bulrushes among a bed of the same near the mouth of the Eden. It 

 was found by my young friend Mr. James Cook, son of my old friend John 

 R. W. Cook — one of our original "Ornithological Company" of four at 

 Merchiston. 



Had a Sedge- Warbler imitated the nest of a Reed- Warbler, or had a Reed- 

 Warbler imitated the eggs of a Sedge- Warbler ? Which was more likely ? 

 There is a very deeply formed nest, undoubtedly that of a Sedge-Warbler, 

 alongside a typical nest of the same species in the Perth Museum, but no claim 

 can be made as regards any resemblance the former has to that of a Reed- 

 Warbler. In both cases instanced above the linings were those of a Sedge- 

 Warbler's nest, and there were none of the broad flag-leaves which are used 

 in the structure of the Reed-Warbler's.] 



Acrocephalus schoenobaenus (L.). Sedge-Warbler. 



Generally distributed in suitable situations. Fairly common in such 

 sites. Still, I believe, a progressing species. Frequent on lower 

 Tay, where there is abundance of good ground for them. In look- 

 ing over old Zoologists, I find an account of a Sedge- Warbler's nest 

 suspended between reeds,^ just as I have described above under 

 Reed- Warbler (aucf. Mr. John P. Thomason, oj). cit., 1871, p. 2681). 

 He wrote from Bolton-le-Moors. 



By 1900 Mr. Milne speaks to an evident increase of the species in 



^ Seebohm says: "The Sedge- Warbler's nest is never suspended between the reeds 

 like the Reed-Warbler's, but is supported by the branches " {Hist, of Brit. Birds, etc., 

 vol. i. p. 355). The land of "Never-never" has scarcely yet been definitely located. 



