220 SYNOPSES AND, ALPHABETIGAL INDEX 
Easy, but not powerful like the other pigeons. Nest : 
In May. Situated in trees and bushes, but not high 
(generally under 20 feet, sometimes as low as 4 feet). 
Same as that of the stock- and ring-dove (which see). 
Second nests: Two broods yearly. Eggs: Polished 
white. Two. 
20. WHITETHROAT 
(Pages 156-160) 
Sylvia cinerea. (Lat., sylvia, warbler, cinerea—Lat. 
cinera, ashes—from its general ashy (dusky) colour). 
) 
Syn.: ‘ Nettle creeper,’ as it often frequents and some- 
times builds in nettles. Distinguish the somewhat 
similar but much rarer, smaller, and locally distributed 
Lesser Whitethroat. A bird of modest plumage ; head, 
neck, grey brown; wings, dark brown; faz, dusky 
brown ; two outer feathers greyish-white (the white is best 
seen in flight); throat, white (whence name) ; belly, 
white ; breast, pale grey tinted rose. Length: 53 inches. 
Look for the whitethroat especially, in a somewhat 
flat-headed bird of reddish-brown and_ greyish-white 
plumage. Known also by its habits. Has an excited 
manner, especially when singing, and betrays presence 
by a startled harsh note, which it repeats. Its song is 
uttered in an excited way, the throat being puffed out 
and the crest erected. It will fly suddenly into the air 
