WHITETHROAT. 409 
and raspberries ; and in the woods it will eat the various wild fruits and 
the softer berries. The Whitethroat may be very often flushed from the 
corn-fields early in August, where it feeds on the insects found on the 
grain; and Dixon states that he has shot them in the act of eating the 
soft milky corn. He also says that the bird sometimes clings to the 
trunks of trees like a Creeper. 
In the moulting-season, which begins in July and lasts until the end of 
August, the Whitethroat becomes a very shy and retiring bird, and is 
also much less garrulous, so much so as to lead to the supposition that the 
birds have departed. The Whitethroat leaves its northern haunts during 
the latter end of September or the first week in October; but it has been 
met with as late as the end of the latter month. It is exceedingly pro- 
bable that these birds perform their migrations in the night; for they may 
be seen quite common one day, and their favourite haunts may be found 
deserted the next. 
The adult male Whitethroat in spring plumage has the general colour 
of the upper parts greyish brown, darkest on the wings and tail, and 
shading into ash-grey on the head and upper tail-coverts ; the wing-coverts 
and innermost secondaries are broadly edged with pale chestnut ; and the 
outside tail-feathers are paler than the rest, and broadly edged with white. 
The underparts are white, purest on the throat and belly, with a vinous 
tinge on the breast, and shading into buff on the flanks. The axillaries 
and under wing-coverts are pale grey, the latter frequently with darker 
-eentres. Bill dark brown, the lower mandible paler; legs, feet, and claws 
pale brown ; irides light hazel. The female has the greyish brown of the 
back extending to the head and upper tail-coverts ; and the vinous tinge 
on the breast is absent. After the autumn moult the male assumes the 
colour of the female. Birds of the year have the colour of the upper parts 
still less grey, almost dull chestnut-brown. 
I am indebted to Mr. Baker, of Sheffield, for a very curious example 
of this bird with a small but very distinct claw on the shoulder. A mon- 
strosity of a similar kind has occurred in the Blackbird, and was described 
by Bonaparte as a new species under the name of Merula dactyloptera. A 
_ similar claw is normally developed on the shoulders of some birds—for 
example the Spur-winged Plover (Charadrius spinosus), and many of the 
Jacanas (Parrine). 
