MS. of the late John Templeton, Esq. :-"On the 21st of May, 1820, I had the pleasure of seeing this bird, to whose haunt in my garden I was attracted by its pleasing melody. It was not very shy, coming near enough to be distinctly seen, but was extremely restless, flitting every moment from place to place, and only stationary on the branch while it gave out its song. The male continued to sing until the young were reared, when his song ceased for about a fortnight; then it was again renewed, as I suppose on the construction of a second nest." By Dr. Harvey of Cork, I have been informed, that his cousin, the late Mr. Henry Fennell of Ballibrado, county of Tipperary, ascertained that this species bred there in more years than one: both old and young birds and eggs were procured. For several years past it has frequented the rich gardens about Sunday's Well,* Cork.

The Garden Warbler is one of the regular summer visitants to England, but would seem to be less common in Scotland, though much more frequent there than in Ireland.

Is a regular summer visitant from south to north.

THIS bird is well known in Ireland. Like the sedge warbler it generally appears about Belfast early in May; but on the 24th of April, 1836, was observed at Cromac in the neighbourhood of the town. On the 23rd of April, 1842, I heard its song in the district of the Falls, and on the following two or three days, heard several singing about the river Lagan, and therefore believed that the general arrival had taken place: in M'Skimmin's History of Carrickfergus (p. 354, 2nd edit.), it is mentioned as being once heard near that city on the 21st of April. One was seen by Mr. J. R. Garrett on the 15th of September, 1837, the latest date at

* Dr. Harvey, on the authority of Mr. R. Parker.

which I am aware of the species having been observed here. Near Raheny, county of Dublin, one was shot in December, 1843, by Mr. R. J. Montgomery, about the same time that a reed warbler, and two blackcaps, were obtained.

The white-throat is a regular summer visitant to the extreme north-west of Ireland, and according to information received, is so to the neighbourhood of Killaloe, and to the counties of Tipperary, Wexford, Cork, and Kerry. Its earliest arrival in the county of Wexford noted by my correspondent is the 1st of May, and the latest seen in autumn, on the 21st of August;* but there can be little doubt, both of its arrival being earlier, and its stay later, than those dates denote.

The song is commenced on arrival, and generally ceases early in the month of July. Its habits, and the grotesquely earnest appearance which the erected feathers on the crown of the head and the distended throat impart when singing, render this bird one of the most interesting of our warblers. When on one of its harmonious flights, the white-throat does not uniformly return to the same place, though it generally does so. I have seen one rise from a low bush, singing in its upward and irregular flight, alight on a leafless tree at some little distance, and there continue to pour forth its notes without intermission, as if perched in the same place all the time. At the Falls early in the summer of 1833, the white-throat was several times heard to imitate the songs of other birds, after the manner of the sedge warbler.

Mr. J. R. Garrett has seen at least half a dozen of its nests about Cromac, where they were generally placed in brambles or the wild rose, with growing grass concealing them from observation; the eggs were generally five in number. This species would seem to prefer placing its nest in thorny plants, as all of those just mentioned were of that description. Indeed, the white-throat appears to be particularly partial to districts still in a state of nature, where the plants alluded to flourish in all their wild luxuriance. In the romantic district of this kind, bounding the sea northward of Glenarm, I have remarked the species to be parti

* Mr. Poole.

cularly abundant. Early in July, 1837, a nest containing eggs was discovered at the "Falls," within about ten paces of a public highway, and twice that distance from an occupied dwellinghouse. It was elevated about a foot above the ground, in a sloebush, and concealed by the growing grass of a late meadow. White-throats, perched on hedges or underwood, with caterpillars in their bills, denoting the vicinity of the nestlings, will often permit our approach within a few paces, all the time keeping a great uproar, consisting of a mere repetition of the word churr.

A young white-throat caught in the middle of June when just fledged, was taken home by the captor. It was at first fed on bread and milk, and worms, but on the third day began to catch flies for itself, when taken near to them. It became perfectly tame. Its favourite perch was the finger of its owner, from which it very expertly picked up the "flies on the window-panes of the house."*

On April the 23rd, 1841, when on the way from Malta to the Morea, in H.M.S. Beacon, a white-throat, migrating northwards, flew on board, when we were 80 miles from Malta, and 50 from Cape Passaro, the nearest land: when walking about Navarino on the 28th, my attention was called to one by its song.

In Dr. Patrick Brown's "Catalogue of the Birds of Ireland," published in Exshaw's Magazine for 1772, I find,—“ Motacilla Curruca, White-bellied Nightingale, seen about Ballydangan, in May, 1774, Brown." To the Catalogue a notice of the "ska or white-throat" is also appended. No specimen of the LESSER WHITE-THROAT (S. curruca) obtained in Ireland, has as yet come under my own notice, or that of any of my correspondents by whom the species is known, but I anticipate its being added to the Irish Fauna: the gun being very rarely directed against warblers, may be the reason that it has not yet been met with. Its occurrence, even in the south of Scotland, was not known to Sir Wm. Jardine at the time of his writing the "British Birds;" Mr. Macgillivray, however, notices the species as met with there, but as being "very uncommon," vol. ii. p. 358.

*Garrett.

When in H.M.S. Beacon, on the 25th of April, 1841, and about 60 miles from Calabria (the nearest land), and 135 east of Mount Etna, a scops-eared owl was knocked down. on the deck and captured, just as he had clutched a lesser whitethroat (S. curruca), of which species two or three appeared. On the 26th another S. curruca alighted, when the vessel was about 90 miles from Zante (the nearest land), and 130 from Navarino. On this day, a sub-alpine warbler (Sylvia subalpina, Bonelli)—a south of Europe species-also came on board.

IN

Holds a very doubtful place in our Fauna.

In my series of papers on the Birds of Ireland, the following appeared:-Relying on the accuracy of a relative, who has bestowed much attention on birds and their nests, I should be disposed to give this species a place here with confidence but for one character, hereafter to be mentioned. On June 19th, 1832, it is remarked of a nest he detected on the ground in a small meadow surrounded by a wooded glen at Wolf-hill, near Belfast, that it belonged to a bird most nearly approaching the willow wren, (S. Trochilus,) but larger, and with a whiter breast; and that the eggs, instead of being marked with numerous very minute, and a few large specks of a dark pink colour, like those of the S. Trochilus, were dotted all over, so much so as to give the egg, at a cursory view, a light-brown appearance. Sketches of these eggs and of those of the willow wren, made at the time, are now before me, and present the difference here pointed out. He observes that it was a very pretty nest, formed of moss, and lined with feathers.* On the morning of the 19th of June it contained one egg, on the 21st three, and on the 24th five eggs; on July the 7th

*This is the only character against its being that of the S. sibilatrix, whose nest is stated by authors to differ from that of the S. Trochilus in not being lined with feathers.

the young were hatched, and on the 19th had left the nest: thus in six days the complement of eggs was laid, in thirteen they were incubated, and in eleven or twelve days the young were fledged. There was a second nest at the same place that season, containing similar eggs.

In the Fauna of Cork, it is remarked by Dr. Harvey:-"I am inclined to believe that the wood wren (S. sibilatrix, Bechst.) is entitled to the place in the Catalogue of Irish Birds, which Mr. Thompson doubtfully assigns to it, on the authority of a friend. This gentleman's observations as to the nest being lined with feathers, contrary to the account of it in the different systematic works, entirely coincide with those of my late friend and relative, Mr. Henry Fennell of Ballybrado, in the county of Tipperary. This talented young gentleman, who was an ardent ornithologist, closely observed a few years since, a bird which appeared to him new, and he found both nest and eggs precisely answering the description given by Mr. Thompson, in the Annals of Natural History (vol. i. p. 22). The nest was profusely lined with feathers, and the eggs (two of which are now in my possession) quite differently spotted from those of the willow wren, and much more densely covered. The bird was larger than either the willow wren or chiff-chaff, and whiter underneath," p. vii. These, and the preceding notes, do not go farther than affording some circumstantial evidence in favour of the wood wren being a summer visitant-proof is still wanting.

This bird appears to be pretty generally distributed over England including the west, and is found northward to the middle districts of Scotland.* Authors state that it differs from the S. trochilus and S. hippolais, by having a decided preference for old woods or trees, and these are much less numerous in Ireland than in either England or Scotland, which may be one reason for the S.sibilatrix not visiting this island like its congeners just named. In July, 1826, this species came under my observation in Switzerland.

* Jard.; Macg.