THE WHITETHROAT a1 
Sus-Famity SYLVIINZ 
THE WHITETHROAT 
SYLVIA CINEREA 
Head ash-grey ; rest of the upper parts grey, tinged with rust colour; wings 
dusky, the coverts edged with red ; lower parts white, faintly tinged on 
the breast with rose colour ; tail dark brown, the outer feather white at 
the tip and on the outer web, the next only tipped with white. Female 
without the rose tint on the breast, but with the upper plumage more 
decidedly tinged with red; feet brown. Length five inches and a half; 
breadth eight and a half. Eggs greenish white, thickly spotted with 
reddish and greenish brown. Young, leaving nest, differ very little from 
adult birds. 
THE Whitethroat is in England the most common of all the migratory 
warblers, and is generally diffused. It is essentially a hedge-bird, 
neither taking long flights nor resorting to lofty trees. Early in 
May it may be detected in a hawthorn or other thick bush, hopping 
from twig to twig with untiring restlessness, frequently descending 
to the ground, but never making any stay, and all the while inces- 
santly babbling with a somewhat harsh but not unpleasant song, 
composed of numerous rapid and short notes, which have but 
little either of variety or compass. Occasionally it takes a short 
flight along the hedge, generally on the side farthest from the 
spectator, and proceeds to another bush a few yards on, where it 
either repeats the same movements, or perches on a high twig for 
a few seconds. From time to time it rises into the air, performing 
curious antics and singing all the while. Its short flight completed, 
it descends to the same or an adjoining twig; and so it seems to 
spend its days. From its habit of creeping through the lower parts 
of hedges, it has received the popular name of ‘ Nettle-creeper ’. 
From the grey tone of its plumage, it is in some districts of France 
called ‘ Griseite’, and in others, from its continuous song, ‘ Babil- 
larde’, names, however, which are popularly applied without distinc- 
tion to this species and the next. While singing it keeps the feathers 
of its head erected, resembling in this respect the Blackcap and 
several of the other warblers. Though not naturally a nocturnal 
musician, it does not, like most other birds, when disturbed at 
night, quietly steal away to another place of shelter, but bursts 
into repeated snatches of song, into which there seems to be infused 
a spice of anger against the intruder. Its food consists of insects 
of various kinds; but when the smaller fruits begin to ripen, it 
repairs with its young brood to our gardens, and makes no small 
havoc among raspberries, currants, and cherries. It constructs 
its nest among brambles and nettles, raised from two to three feet 
from the ground, of bents and the dry stems of herbs, mixed with 
cobweb, cotton from the willow, bits of wool, and horsehair. It 
usually lays five eggs. 
1 This night song is rarely heard except in the months of May and June. 
