the whitethroat 21 



Sub-Family SYLVIIN^ 

 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 

 caUed ' Grisette', 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 ]\Iay and June, 



