348 SYLVIA HOllTENSIS. 



is not very plentiful in England, was first discovered in Lan- 

 cashire, and sent from thence to Dr Latham by Sir Ashton 

 Lever. However, since it has been better known, it is found 

 to arrive in several of the southern counties about the latter 

 end of April or beginning of ]\Iay. Its song is little inferior to 

 that of the Nightingale. Some of the notes are sweetly and 

 softly drawn ; others quick, lively, loud, and piercing, reach- 

 ing the ear with pleasing harmony, something like the whistle 

 of the Blackbird, but in a more hurried cadence : sings fre- 

 quently after sunset. This bird chiefly inhabits thick hedges, 

 where it makes a nest composed of goose-grass, and other 

 fibrous plants, flimsily put together, like that of the com- 

 mon Whitethroat, with the addition sometimes of a little 

 green moss externally : the nest is placed in some bush near 

 the ground. It lays four eggs, about the size of a Hedge Spar- 

 row''s, weighing about thirty-six grains, of a dirty white, blotch- 

 ed all over with light brown, most numerous at the larger end, 

 where spots of ash-colour also appear. In Wiltshire, where 

 we have found this species not uncommon, it resorts to gar- 

 dens in the latter end of summer, together with the White- 

 throat and Blackcap, for the sake of currants and other fruit." 

 According to Sweet, " It first visits us in the spring, about 

 the latter end of April, or the beginning of May ; and its ar- 

 rival is soon made known by its very loud and long song. It 

 generally begins very low, not unlike the song of the Swallow, 

 but raises it by degrees, until it resembles the song of the Black- 

 bird, singing nearly all through the day, and the greater part 

 of the time it stays with us, which is but short, as it leaves us 

 again in August. In confinement it will sing nearly all through 

 the year if it be treated well. In a wild state, it is generally 

 found in gardens and plantations, where it feeds chiefly on 

 fruits, and will not refuse some kinds of insects ; it is very fond 

 of the larva or caterpillar that is often found in abundance on 

 cabbage plants, the produce of Papilio Brassicw, and I know 

 no other bird of the genus that will feed on it. Soon after its 

 arrival here the strawberries are ripe, and it is not long before 

 it finds them out ; the cherries it will begin before they are 

 quite ripe ; and I know not any kind of fruit or berry which is 



