WHITE THROAT 1037 
result, to be especially regretted since its affinities are undetermined. 
Originally described as a Fringilla, it was next placed in the genus 
Parus, and for a long while was supposed to belong to ORTHONYX 
(page 658), a purely Australian form, but is now referred, with its 
supposed representative in the South Island 
(YELLOWHEAD), to a distinct genus Clitonyz, 
which the late Mr. W. A. Forbes (Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1882, pp. 544-546) ascertained to be 
“nerfectly Oscinine.” The Whitehead, C. albi- 
capilla, from being one of the commonest is 
now one of the rarest species in its country, 
and its diminution ending in its inevitable destruction seems due, 
as Sir W. Buller (5. NV. Zeal. ed. 2,1. p. 55) suggests, to the intro- 
duction of exotic birds, which, being morphologically higher and 
constitutionally stronger, establish themselves at the expense of 
the lower, weaker and earlier, but far more instructive native forms. 
Ciironyx. (From Buller.) 
WHITETHROAT, a name commonly given to two species of 
little birds, one of which, the Motacilla silvia of Linneeus and Sylvia 
rufa+ or S. cinerea of some recent authors, is regarded as the type, 
not only of the genus Sylvia, but of the so-called family Sylviide 
(WARBLER). 
Very widely spread over Great Britain, in some places common, 
and by its gesticulations and song rather conspicuous, it is one of 
those birds which has gained a familiar nickname, and “ Peggy 
Whitethroat ” is the anthropomorphic appellation of schoolboys and 
milkmaids, though it shares “ Nettle-creeper” and other homely 
names with perhaps more than one congener, while in books it is 
by way of distinction the Greater Whitethroat. Its song, except 
by association with the season at which it is uttered, can scarcely 
be called agreeable, some of its notes being very harsh; but the 
performer may be seen to be always in earnest, erecting the feathers 
of his crown, puffing out those of his throat, shaking his wings 
and making other rapid movements expressive of his feelings. 
Occasionally he will deliver his song as he flies up in a peculiar 
fashion, describing small circles in the air, stopping with a jerk, 
and then returning to the spot whence he arose. 
The Lesser Whitethroat, Sylvia curruca,? is both in habits and 
plumage a much less sightly bird: the predominant reddish-brown 
of the upper surface, and especially the rufous edging of the wing- 
feathers, so distinctive of its larger congener, are wanting, and 
1 This specific term has been often but inaccurately and absurdly used for a 
very different bird, the Chiffchaff (cf [Willow] Wren). Its only proper applica- 
tion is to the Whitethroat. 
* This is not the curruca of ancient writers, that being almost certainly the 
Hedge-Sparrow (page 895), in England the ordinary dupe of the Cuckow. 
