BIKDS OF DUMFKIESSHIRE 
writes me from Ruthwell that an " odd pair used to nest ; 
wT^^v. substantiated Mr. 
W. Bell, however, informs me that he found a nest with five 
eggs m a whin-bush on the Solway shore in Dornock 
pansh on June 16th, 1907, and one of these eggs sent to 
me for yenfication was undoubtedly of this species. 
The Lesser Whitethroat winters in northern and central 
Africa, and breeds, as regards Great Britain, in tolerable 
abundance m the southern, eastern and midland counties 
of England, where it arrives in April or May, and departs 
early m September. cpaiKs 
THE BLACKCAP. Sylvia atricapilla (Linnaeus). 
A summer-viMtanl generally distributed throughout the county. 
vicinT' m t"^'"'', writing in 1839, says, "in our own 
vicmity [it] has only appeared within these few years 
which may be perhaps owing to the gradual increase of 
more extensi ve shrubbery and plantations giving it suitable 
food and retirement."* ='ui>'*u«5 
Nowadays, from the reports I have received, the Black- 
W T'^' t * """'^ ^hundant species than the 
Garden-Warbler which is the reverse of its status in the 
Clyde area,t and it is recorded from all the arable districts 
ot Dumfriesshire, although unaccountably absent from 
some seemingly most suitable haunts. Thus Mr. William 
Laidlaw writes me from Canonbie that it is " very rare 
have only seen one." ^ ' 
The Blackcap seldom comes to us before the latter half 
lurl t J^t winter-quarters in Africa and southern 
iMirope, for which it again departs in October or November 
in some seasons it arrives here in markedly greater numbers 
* Nat. Lib., 1839, Vol. XL, p. 130. 
t Fauna of Clyde Area, 1901, p. 169. 
