J faye 
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flying from bush to bush, gambolling with each other, and giving 
chase to insects. The song of the Garden Warbler is a very sweet 
one; and its notes are perhaps the softest of any that have equal 
compass—-but they are delightful flute-like notes ; and the whistling 
part of the song, which is about as full and mellow as that of the 
blackbird, has an unbroken swell, which is at once very character- 
istic and peculiar. Any of my hearers who care to hear the song 
of this bird, may easily do so by taking an early train to Wetheral, 
any fine summer morning, and in the bits of plantation near to the 
Station, by the water-side, may hear them to perfection. It builds 
early in May. Its nest is very similar to the blackcap, but built 
nearer to the ground in low bushes ; it is composed of dry grasses, 
lined with fine fibrous roots, and sometimes hair, and the edges 
are fastened with dry cocoons of insects’ and spiders’ webs. The 
eggs, from four to five in number, are of a yellowish white, spotted 
with light ash grey and olive brown. The length of the male bird 
is about six inches. Bill, dusky brown, the base and edges of the 
lower mandible yellow; the inside of the mouth orange. Iris, 
dark brown, a small space round it being whitish. Head, on the 
sides, pale brownish; on the crown, the neck, on the back, and 
the nape, light greyish brown with a faint tinge of olive; the neck 
on the sides is brownish grey ; chin and throat yellowish white, the 
lower part of the latter and upper part of the breast tinged with 
reddish brown, as are the sides, the remainder yellowish white, 
almost white below. Tail straight, the feathers narrow, and dusky 
brown in colour; under tail coverts pale greyish brown, the 
margins white. The female closely resembles the male both in 
size and appearance, but is lighter in colour on the upper part, 
and_more uniformly greyish brown beneath. 
WHITETHROAT (Curruca cinerea ). 
Dear old Peggy, or Nanny Whitethroat, as we used to call it 
in our happy school-boy days. It is indelibly impressed on my 
memory as being one of the first bird’s nests I ever discovered. 
T see it now in my mind’s eye as I saw it upwards of twenty years 
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