42 WHITETHROAT. 



Mountains appear to form the eastern boundary of our White- 

 throat. 



Hedge-rows and thickets overgrown .with brambles are favourite 

 resorts of this lively bird, and owing to its predilection for beds of 

 nettles it is generally known by the name of " Nettle-creeper." The 

 slight but rather deep nest, made of fine grass-stems and lined with 

 bents and horsehair, is placed low down in almost any kind of 

 coarse vegetation, or in straggling hedges ; the eggs, 4-6, are greenish- 

 white or stone-colour, blotched and sometimes zoned with violet- 

 grey and light brown : average measurements 7 by "55 in. The food 

 consists largely of insects, especially Tipulcc ; also fruit and berries 

 during the season. The alarm-note is harsh and scolding : the male 

 showing considerable annoyance at the presence of an intruder on 

 his domain, and often following the pedestrian for some distance 

 along a hedge-row, flitting from branch to branch with every feather 

 on the throat and crest extended, agitating his outspread tail ; anon 

 shooting almost perpendicularly into the air. The female is less 

 demonstrative and generally skulks amongst the herbage. The 

 sweet but somewhat monotonous song of the male, uttered in 

 snatches with great en'ergy, is frequently to be heard by night as 

 well as by day in May and June. 



Adult male in spring: head and neck smoke-grey ; mantle and 

 wings brown, with broad rufous margins to the secondaries ; tail- 

 feathers brown, except the two outer ones which are mostly dull 

 white, the next pair having broad white tips ; chin and throat 

 white, passing into vinous-buff on the breast; abdomen brownish- 

 white, darker on the flanks ; under wing smoke-grey ; bill brown, 

 lighter on lower mandible ; legs and feet pale brown. Length 5*5 in. ; 

 wing to end of 3rd and longest quill 275 in. The female is duller, 

 and has the head brown like the back, while the vinous tint of the 

 breast is absent. The young are rather more tawny-brown and rufous. 



Those Whitethroats which breed in the south of Europe, and 

 which migrate only a short distance southwards, are rather small in 

 size and brilliant in the contrast of their colours. A further step in 

 the process of evolution has produced a perfectly recognizable 

 species in the shape of Sylvia couspicillata, much smaller, with 

 more pronounced ear-coverts, and far brighter colours ; but other- 

 wise, in habits, colour of eggs &c., a miniature reproduction of our 

 bird. Every one of ornithological tastes who has visited Gibraltar, 

 Malta, or almost any place in the Mediterranean basin, will remem- 

 ber the Spectacled Warbler, and appreciate the force of the com- 

 parison. 



