54 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



in his short flight what that close observer and accurate 

 describe!-, White of Selborne, quaintly terras ' those odd 

 jerks and gesticulations ' which so clearly distinguish the 

 Whitethroat from all his congeners. When this bird 

 ceases its chatter — which is but seldom — and really sings, 

 its song is very pleasing. A joyous trio I heard in the 

 Castle wood, by a Nightingale, a Blackcap and a White- 

 throat, far surpassing all the squalling of the opera. At 

 Shooter's Hill, on April 23, 1845, exactly on the same 

 spot as last year, I this morning discovered the two 

 Whitethroats. In the same locality on April 19 and 26, 

 1861, I found the Whitethroats had arrived. On April 

 30 the Whitethroats alone are plentiful ; I find them 

 creeping about the nettles at the bottom of a warm, thick 

 thorn hedge, picking up the small black ground-spiders 

 and the red ants." 



Among the arrivals at Annerly, Mr. C. Colhngwood 

 gives the " Whitethroat as April 14, 1854." 



On April 18, 1902, one was heard in Barrow Wood, 

 Kent, and another obtained on April 25. 



Mr. A. G. Butler, while bird's-nesting in Kent in 1875, 

 obtained a nest on May 24 — the eggs were sap-green, 

 mottled — at Kodmersham. 



Boys includes the AVhitethroat in the Birds of Sand- 

 wich, 1792. The Kev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, in 1844, 

 says it is " common in Kent." Morris, in his His- 

 tory of British Birds, says it is " to be seen in every 

 county of England from Kent to Cornwall." " It is 

 common in the Maidstone district," according to Mr. 

 H. Lamb ; and common about Orlestone, Mr. E. T. 

 Filmer ; Bethersden, Captain J. D. Cameron; Stour- 

 mouth, G. Dowker ; Nonington, W. 0. Hammond ; Dover, 

 C. Gordon; Elmstone, Kev. W. B. Delmar ; Dover, G. 



