LESSER WHITETHROAT 55 



Gray ; Walmer, Be v. B. Austen ; Folkestone, H. Ullyett ; 

 Dover, Plomley Collection. "It is a summer visitor" 

 to the Mailing valley, Bev. C. H. Fielding, and the 

 Higham district, Bev. C. H. Fielding. Mr. W. Prentis, 

 in his Birds of Rainham, says that it "is provincially 

 called Jolly Whitethroat." 



In the Bulletin of the B.O.C. for 1906, the arrival of 

 the Whitethroat in Kent is April 11 and 12, 1905. 



LESSER WHITETHROAT. 



Sylvia curvuca (LinntTUs). aS'.-ZV., i., p. 329 (1766). 

 Meggie Whitethroat. 



The Lesser Whitethroat is certainly far less abundant 

 in Kent than its larger ally, the Whitethroat. Very few 

 appear to remain to breed around the coast-line, and they 

 no doubt go far inland to the river valleys, and places 

 sheltered from the north-east winds. 



With regard to the dates of arrivals the following notes 

 have been brought together : The Bev. J. Pemberton 

 Bartlett, writing in 1844, says it is " not uncommon. 

 Both the Whitethroats arrive about the first or second 

 week in April, and usually depart about the end of 

 August." Mr. M. Hutchinson, writing from Shooter's 

 Hill, Kent, states that "on the morning of April 17, 

 1844, I fell in with the Lesser Whitethroat, and narrowly 

 watched it with my glass for half an hour, as it kept 

 creeping through the intricacies of a thick thorn hedge. 

 It is a neat, modestly attired bird, and is the clearest, 

 most liquid whistler we have. On April 23, 1845, I first 

 saw the Lesser Whitethroat. At the same spot as last 



