408 BRITISH BIRDS. 
to have two notes besides its song and alarm-note. The most frequently 
heard of these resembles the sound of hweet-hweet-hweet very vigorously 
repeated, and is generally uttered when the male and female are chasing 
and toying with each other in some low bush or underwood. The other 
is a cha-cha-cha, very similar to the chirp of a Sparrow. 
Like the Goldcrest and the Wren, the Whitethroat when pursued hides 
itself in the cover, and if chased will always contrive to keep on the side 
of the hedge furthest away. You may follow it backwards and forwards, 
but rarely will it be induced to leave the cover, and its harsh notes are the 
only sign of its presence. 
By the beginning of May the Whitethroats are in pairs; and soon after 
this date their flimsy net-like abode may be found. The nest is placed 
at different elevations from the ground. Sometimes it is found amongst 
the brambles creeping in wild confusion over a waste bit of ground; at 
others it is seen in the dense whitethorn or hazel-hedges, in the tangled 
grass growing round stumpy bushes and shrubs, amongst nettles and 
other coarse vegetation, and has been known to be built in the heaps of 
hedge-clippings left in little-frequented corners of gardens and orchards. 
The nest is made of fine dry grass-stems, and is lined with a few fibrous 
rootlets and a quantity of horsehair. Although’so slight and loosely put 
together, the Whitethroat’s nest is a very pretty one, and may generally 
be distinguished from the nests of allied birds by its greater depth. The 
eggs of the Whitethroat are from four to six in number. Some specimens 
are buffish white, with most of the spots underlying and violet-grey in 
colour; others are pale bluish white, mottled, blotched, and speckled with 
yellowish brown, and with large underlying spots of violet-grey ; whilst 
others are pale green, sparingly marked with olive-green. Some speci- 
mens of Whitethroat’s eggs are much more richly marked than others. 
I possess one which has the larger end boldly marked with large brown 
spots. In some eggs the spots are evenly distributed; in others they 
form a zone round the larger half of the egg; and in others they are all 
confluent on the large end, forming a round mass of colour. They 
measure from ‘8 to ‘65inch in length, and from ‘6 to ‘5 inch in breadth. 
Certain eggs of the Whitethroat closely resemble the eggs of the Dartford 
Warbler; but, as a rule, the eggs of the latter species are never so green. 
From the eggs of the Lesser Whitethroat those of the Common White- 
throat may be distinguished by never having the ground-colour so pure 
and the markings so rich a brown or so clearly defined. 
The food of the Common Whitethroat during the first month or so of 
its sojourn here consists almost exclusively of insects; and on this food 
its young are reared, especially on the fly popularly known as “daddy 
longlegs,” and which often swarms to an alarming extent in dry summers. 
In the fruit-time, however, the Whitethroat visits the gardens for currants 
