LESSER WHITETHROAT. 295 



The Lesser Wliitethroat is by no means an uncommon 

 bird around London, but is observed to be much more plen- 

 tiful in some seasons than it is in others. South and west 

 of London it visits Hampshire, Wiltshire, Devonshire, So- 

 mersetshire and Gloucestershire ; is rare in Cornwall and 

 Wales, and has not, I believe, been identified as a visiter to 

 L-eland. It frequents Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, the 

 enclosed parts of Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and 

 Durham, in which latter county it frequents strong and thick 

 whin or furze-bushes. Farther north in Northumberland 

 it becomes more rare, according to Mr. Selby ; but extends, 

 though probably in still more limited numbers, to Scotland. 

 Mr. Rennie, who appears to be well acquainted with this 

 bird, mentions having seen it at Musselburgh Haugh, near 

 Edinburgh, and also in Ayrshire. It visits Denmark, and 

 arrives in Sweden by the 20th of May ; it also visits the 

 southern part of Russia, as well as the more temperate and 

 warmer parts of the European Continent, including Spain 

 and Portugal, but quits them, and even Genoa and Italy, in 

 September. M. Temminck says, it is abundant in Asia ; 

 and Colonel Sykes obtained examples in the Dukhun, which 

 only differed from some English specimens in having a red- 

 dish tint on the white of the under surface ; but Mr. Blyth 

 mentions, in some remarks on this species in the Naturalist, 

 and also in a note to an edition of White''s Selborne, that he 

 has seen this rosy tint on specimens obtained in this coun- 

 try ; I may here also quote in corroboration, part of a letter 

 received from my kind friend the Rev. W. F. Cornish of 

 Totness, who is very successful in his treatment of our small 

 singing birds in confinement, which is, " I have reared the 

 Lesser Whitethroat, two males and a female ; the males had 

 a beautiful tinge of carmine on their breast." 



In the adult male the beak is nearly black ; the base of the 

 under mandible yellowish brown ; the irides yellowish white ; 



