FOR CAGES AND AVIARIES. 



223 



THE WHITE-HEADED HARPY. See Harrier 

 (Marsh). 



THE WHITE OWL. See Barn Owl {tmder Owls), 



THE WHITETHROATS. 



The Greater Whitethroat. 



This is another of the delightful warblers that come to 

 us in the spring, stay and sing during the summer and rear 

 a nest or two of young, to depart again in the autumn. 



It is about 5^ inches in length, of which the tail mea- 

 sures 2^ or 2f inches. Its general colour is ashen-grey 

 stinged with brown, more deeply on the back than else- 

 where, while the throat and belly are pure white. When 

 singing, it has a habit of raising the feathers on the top 

 of its head into a kind of crest, as well as of ruffling 

 out those of the throat into a kind of frill. When singing 

 it sits on the top of a low bush, and often darts off, 

 ascending a few feet into the air, and singing all the time as 

 if it had not stirred from its perch, to which it always 

 returns. It arrives here in April and leaves us about the 

 commencement of October. 



The female is a trifle lighter in colour than her mate, 

 but there is very little outward difference between the sexes. 



In the house it should be lodged and treated like the 

 Nightingale, but it is more delicate and requires more in- 

 sect food as well as more protection from cold than the 

 Blackcap. In its wild state it Hves almost entirely on 

 insects — flies and small caterpillars — but in the autumn, like 

 its congeners, it will eat a little fruit, mostly small berries. 



The nest has a general resemblance to that of the 

 Blackcap, but is of much less solid construction, so flimsy 

 indeed that the eggs can be seen through it from below, 

 for it is often built at a height of five or six feet from 

 the ground, though more generally only two or three. 



The young have a habit of springing from the nest long 



