BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 19 
to this cause," says Mr. R. Service, "must be attributed 
the strong allegations made from more than one district 
that the Nightingale himseK had crossed the Border."* 
From time to time the local newspapers have pubHshed 
paragraphs as to its song having been heard, but such 
statements will not bear investigation. The Night- 
ingale is a regular summer-visitant to England south of 
mid-Yorkshire and east of mid-Devonshire, where it breeds ; 
as also in central and southern Europe, parts of Asia 
Minor and North Africa ; its winter-quarters are in Africa, 
as far south as Abyssinia and the Gold Coast.] 
THE WHITETHROAT. Sylvia cinerea, Bechstein. 
Local names— Cut-throat; Maggie Cut-throat ; Nettle- 
Creeper ; Jenny Cut-throat. 
" Her nest is here. But ah ! the cunning thing. 
See where our White-throat, like the partridge, feigns 
A broken wing, thick fluttering o'er the ground. 
And tumbKng oft, to draw you from her brood 
Within the bush. Now that's a lie, my birdie ! 
Your wing's not broken, but we'll grant you this,— 
The lie's a white one, white as your own throat." 
Thomas Aird. — " A Summer Day:* 
A very common summer-visitant. 
The Whitethroat arrives here at the end of April or 
beginning of May, and leaves again for its winter-quarters 
on the southern shores of the Mediterranean and as far 
south as Abyssinia and Damaraland in August or 
September. 
Mr. R. Service has already drawn attention to the fact 
that its usually frail nest may sometimes be found " more 
substantially woven together. "f 
* Trans. Edin. Field Nat. Soc, 1904-1905, Vol. V., Part 3, p. 181. 
t Trans. Qlasg. Nat. Hist. Soc, 1905, Vol. VII., p. 138. 
c 2 
