16 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



SUBFAMILY SYLVIIN^.— GENUS SYLVIA. 



WHITETHROAT. 



Sylvia cinerea, Bechstein. 



Local Names — Peggy, Peggy Wliitefhroat, Cut-throat, 

 Small Straw, Stratr-small (prononnced Streca-smair). 



One of the commonest of the summer migrants, 

 breeding numerously. Of all my informants, only Mr. 

 W. A. Durnford reports it — and that in the Furness 

 district — as occurring in but small numbers ; in 

 most other places it is abundant. It arrives from the 

 middle to the end of April, and I have occasionally 

 found nests with their full complement of five eggs 

 before May has come in, but this is the usual breed- 

 ing month. Its habit of perching on hedges and trees 

 by the road-sides, loudly chattering its simple notes, 

 makes the Whitethroat one of the best known of the 

 genus. It leaves again in the latter half of September. 



LESSER WHITETHROAT. 



Sylvia curruca (Linnaeus). 



Local Names — Peggy, Hazel-Linnet. 



A summer visitor ; very much less common than the 

 last species, and arriving rather later and departing 

 rather earlier, than it. Mr. A. G. More was certainly 

 misinformed when, in the Ibis for 1865, he stated — a 

 statement copied into Mr. H. E. Dresser's " Birds of 

 Europe " — that the Lesser Whitethroat breeds in all 

 counties but Lancashire, &c., &c., for Mr. W. Peterkin, 



