56 



elegans), disappear in summer, as if they had been cut out by a pair of scissors.* 

 In some future communication, I may perhaps be induced to treat more fully upon 

 this subject. 



It may be remarked, that this specimen, killed so late in the year, was by no 

 means, as some would otherwise perhaps be inclined to suppose, a weakly young 

 bird of a late hatch, too feeble to accompany its fellows at the time of their migra- 

 tion ; but its quill-feathers having been changed, (as is intimated by one or two of 

 them not having yet attained their development), sufficiently proves that it was 

 not a bird of that year, as no member of the dentirostral sub-order of perching 

 birds changes its wing-primaries at the first renovation of its clothing plumage. 



In confinement, the Whitebreast is hardy and healthy, and may be kept on 

 the food usually given to insectivorous birds, allowing it also, occasionally, a 

 little fruit, and insect diet whenever practicable. It mostly recommences singing 

 about January ; but does not utter its loud note until about six weeks or two 

 months afterwards. 



As to its distribution over the British islands, I believe it to be much more 

 general than is commonly imagined, but that it is often most unaccountably over- 

 looked, as it was, for a long time, in the southern counties. Mr. Neville Wood 

 finds it plentiful in Derbyshire, and Mr. Herbert in the vicinity of Spofforth, in 

 Yorkshire ; Mr. Rennie, who, to my certain knowledge, is well acquainted with 

 the bird, speaks of having seen it in Ayrshire, and at Musselbourgh Haugh, near 

 Edinburgh. According to Temminck, it is diffused over the temperate parts of 

 Europe and Asia, but does not spread farther to the north than Sweden, in which 

 country Linneus also observed it ; a fact which at least negatively corroborates the 

 assertion that it also visits North Britain. 



This bird is the " Lesser Whitethroat" of most ornithological writers, and is 

 known in Surrey by the names Nettlecreeper, Grey Whitethroat, and French 

 Whitethroat. Frequently, however, the first of these appellations is also applied 

 by the peasantry, to the Whitethroated Fauvet, but whenever a distinction is 

 made (which is more commonly the case with the nests and eggs), the latter is 

 invariably the Whitethroat, and the other the Nettlecreeper. In Mr. Wood's 

 recent work on British Song Birds, the subject of the present paper is called the 

 " Garrulous Fauvet," though, strictly speaking, it is decidedly less garrulous than 

 the Whitethroat. I have, therefore, preferred to designate it by the term white- 

 breasted, which name is at least sufficiently exclusive among the British species. 



That there should be a standard and a systematic vernacular nomenclature for 

 our native productions, is, I think, very much to be desired. At the same time it 

 is of little use altering unless we can improve. Every succeeding writer approxi- 

 mates more towards supplying this deficiency, and most of the aquatic birds 



* This, however, only takes place very partially in confinement. 



