Sl-i SYLVIAD.E. 



covered the nest with three young ; it was placed among the 

 dead branches of the thickest furze, about two feet from the 

 ground, slightly fastened between the main stems, not in a 

 fork. On the same day a pair were observed to be busied, 

 carrying materials for building ; and by concealing myself in 

 the bushes, I soon discovered the place of nidification, and, 

 upon examination, found the nest was just begun. As early 

 as the 19th, the nest appeared to be finished; but it pos- 

 sessed only one egg on the 21st, and on the 26th it con- 

 tained four, when the nest and eggs were secured." 



" The nest is composed of dry vegetable stalks, particularly 

 goose-grass, mixed with the tender dead branches of furze, 

 not sufficiently hardened to become prickly ; these are put 

 together in a very loose manner, and intermixed very spar- 

 ingly with wool. In one of the nests was a single Partridge"'s 

 feather. The lining is equally sparing, for it consists only 

 of a few dry stalks of some fine species of Carex, without a 

 single leaf of the plant, and only two or three of the panicles. 

 This thin flimsy structure, which the eye pervades in all 

 parts, much resembles the nest of the Whitethroat. The 

 eggs are also somewhat similar to those of the Whitethroat, 

 but rather less, weighing only twenty-two grains ; like the 

 eggs of that species, they possess a slight tinge of green ; 

 they are fully speckled all over with olivaceous-brown and 

 cinereous, on a greenish white ground ; the markmgs becom- 

 ing more dense, and forming a zone at the larger end." 



Young males brought up from the nest, Colonel Mon- 

 tagu says, " began to sing with the appearance of their first 

 mature feathers, and continued in song all the month of Oc- 

 tober, sometimes with scarcely any intermission for several 

 hours together : the notes are entirely native, consisting of 

 considerable variety, delivered in a hurried manner, and in a 

 much lower tone tlian I have ever heard the old birds in their 

 natural haunts. This song is different from anything of the 



