156 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Family SYLVIID^. The Warblers. 

 Whitethroat. Sylvia comfjiunis Latham. 



The Greater or^Common Whitethroat (Plate 63) is a summer 

 visitor, nesting throughout the British Isles except in the 

 extreme north. In Europe it is well distributed, and it 

 winters in southern Africa ; in autumn birds from northern 

 Europe travel southward along our coasts. 



The two Whitethroats are slender, active, brownish-grey 

 birds, distinguished from other warblers by their very white 

 throats and chins, but not easy to tell from one another in the 

 field. The larger bird has the back and wings distinctly more 

 rufous, and there is little noticeable difference between the grey 

 on the head and cheeks of the male, whereas in the Lesser 

 Whitethroat the ear-coverts are decidedly darker than the 

 crown. 



About the middle of April, as a rule, we hear the persistent 

 song of the Common Whitethroat and see the bird slipping in 

 and out of the hedgerows. Untrimmed hedges and bramble 

 tangles along the lanesides are its haunts ; ever on the move, 

 it appears one moment on the top, swelling its white throat in 

 song, then slides into the shelter of the leaves, reappearing at 

 the side some yards before us with conversational whit, whit, 

 whit. Its movements are rapid, but it often halts to reach up 

 for an insect above it, or will suddenly shoot into the air, just 

 for long enough to utter its short song, and descend with open 

 wings, dancing up again, then falling into the bush or hedge. 

 From its skill in traversing dense herbage, it is known as the 

 "Nettle-creeper," but in many parts it is called the "Cut- 

 straw." The short but rapid song is uttered, as Burroughs 

 puts it, with " emphasis and assurance " ; it has a character 

 purely its own, not by any means always sweet, though its 

 quality varies. In some birds the opening notes are round 



