SYLVIIN.'E. 



43 



THE LESSER WHITETHROAT. 



Sylvia curruca (LiniiKus). 



The Lesser Whitethroat, as its name implies, is a smaller bird 

 than its congener ; and although it arrives in England about the 

 same time, its distribution in our islands is decidedly less extensive. 

 Tolerably abundant in the southern, eastern and midland counties, 

 it becomes rarer in the west ; only visiting Cornwall on migration, 

 and having been recorded for the first time as breeding in Brecon- 

 shire in 1886. To Cheshire and Lancashire it is a well-known 

 though not very numerous summer-visitor, and it is generally dis- 

 tributed in Yorkshire ; but scarce in Durham, Westmoreland and 

 Cumberland. In Scotland, Mr. R. Service informs me that it is 

 seldom met with in Kirkcudbrightshire, although better known in the 

 eastern part of Dumfriesshire and down by the Borders, and he has 

 only twice found its nest ; it is said to breed sparingly and locally 

 as far as Stirlingshire ; but in the norlliern counties, and in the out- 

 lying islands, the evidence, so far as 1 have been able to collect any 

 of a trustworthy nature, tends to show that it is at most a rare 

 straggler. One is stated in the ' Scottish Naturalist ' to have been 

 shot by Mr. G. Sim in Aberdeenshire, on November 4th 1S80; 

 and Saxby says that he observed it in September on Unst, Shetland. 

 From Ireland there are as yet no records of it. 



In Scandinavia the Lesser Whitethroat breeds up to about 65° 



