84 



BIRDS. 



his district of late years. He says : " Nine of their nests were found 

 in broom and whins beside the Bervie AVater, and they are very 

 generally dispersed." 



They are to be met with here and there — and in some places 

 commonly — in meadow-lands, and in the rougher patches on the 

 slightly drier ground above, amongst bog-myrtle, along the sides 

 of out-streams and lochs. 



But the Sedge-Warbler is by no means common among the higher 

 reaches of the tributaries of Tay. They are known, however, to 

 have reached as far up Tay as Dalguise, where Millais has obtained 

 specimens, and they frequent the lower reaches in perhaps increasing 

 numbers of late years. 



I observed one alonsj the side of the loch of the Lowes in the 

 strip of willow and alder which fringes the loch and the road on the 

 south side. This was on the 1st June 1905 — a cold, sunless day. 



It is almost undoubtedly more abundant in the eastern districts 

 than in the west, as there are far more suitable localities for it there, 

 and it is only spoken of as " here and there " in the main valleys 

 of Tay. 



Locustella naevia (Bodd.). Grasshopper-Warbler. 



Summer ^dsitant. Not abundant. Extending its range, however, in 

 certain directions. Local. 



The first mention of it is in 1870, when Mr. P. D. Malloch shot 

 one near Methven in the spring, and this specimen is now in the 

 Perth Museum (Trans. Perth. Soc, etc., vol. i. p. 96); and in 1873 

 Mr. Malloch records another also shot by himself, in May of that 

 year, at Lower Egypt, on the banks of the Almond AYater. Both of 

 these passed through the hands of Col. Drummond Hay, by 1874, 

 though not before. These were recorded and installed on the roll 

 of the county in 1880, by Col. Drummond Hay. If this bird be 

 finally admitted, it may be said to have established its claim at 

 that time. 



In 1881 one was noted near Perth, in the Froc. Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 Glas. (vol. V. p. 52). 



Then in 1895 it was reported as nesting near Nidie Dam on the 

 north bank of the river Eden by Mr. Geo. Bruce {op. cit., p. 297). 



Up to 1899 I have no conclusive evidence of its nesting (see 

 Annals Scot. Nat. Hist., 1899, p. 150 — A. Nichol Simpson), except 

 that the Rev. T. B. Dobbie reports that he took the eggs a few miles 

 north of Perth, and expresses himself as '* never having heard of 



