WARBLERS. 59 
see the caterpillars which the same bird consumes, 
and which would have grieved his very heart by 
their ravages upon the choicest products of his skill. 
He appreciates their absence, no doubt, but he re- 
mains in ignorance of the source to which that 
absence is due. And so the theft of a little fruit, 
which he does see, is allowed to outweigh the slaughter 
of multitudinous destructive insects, which he does 
not ; and the whitethroat, in common with so many 
other birds, suffers a punishment which it has by no 
means deserved. 
The bird, in fact, is one of that large class of 
beings the members of which are at once injurious 
and beneficial. They rob us to some degree, but 
prevent others from doing so to a far greater, and 
are, in fact, natural police, who exact a certain pay- 
ment from us in consideration of their services in 
repressing insect criminals. 
A very favourite article of diet with the whitethroat 
is the caterpillar of the Cabbage White butterfly, that 
mischievous creature with whose ravages most of us 
are well acquainted, and which every gardener anathe- 
matises from his inmost soul. But few insects or 
grubs come amiss to the bird, which, but for the 
depredations above referred to, would be an un- 
qualified friend to mankind, and which, even as it 
is, is an ally whose services merit far more recogni- 
tion than they usually receive. 
The nest of the whitethroat, which is a singularly 
pretty one, is always built near the ground, generally 
among brambles, nettles, or even long grass. The 
