310 THE WHITE-BREASTED WARBLER. 



The Lesser Whitethroat, or White-Breasted 

 Warbler. 



(Motacilla Garrula.) Linn. (Gurruca Garrula.) Briss. 



" The birds of late so noisy in their bowers 

 Warbled awhile with faint and fainter powers, 

 But now are silent as the dim-seen flowers." — Wordsivorth. 



Though not nearly so garrulous as the last, this bird is well- 

 named Garrula, and the Babilard or babbling warbler. In food, 

 time of coming and leaving, it is like the last — only less, and not 

 so ostentatious in song and flight ; is shyer and more retiring — 

 preferring to screen itself amongst the thickest hedges than 

 exposing itself, singing and tumbling over them like a fool in a 

 ring — like the last. Therefore, like the garden warbler, it seems 

 to be rarer than it is. At one time it was thought to be con- 

 fined to the south of Britain. Montagu says its northern limit 

 was Lincolnshire ; since then it has been traced throughout 

 Scotland, and no doubt flits about the thickets and plantations 

 around us, although unobserved, as it conceals itself with much 

 art, and threads through the densest thicket with the ease and 

 speed of a mouse. So I advise my young friends who care for 

 the study of Ornithology to watch and read the book of Nature 

 for themselves ; and many birds, deemed rare, will be discovered 

 to reward them for their pains or pleasures. As proof of this a 

 Statistical Report of Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, says — "The 

 lesser whitethroat, supposed to be confined to England, is 

 common here. The nest is sometimes in a hedge, but oftener 

 among long dry grass by the side of a wood, four or five inches 

 from the ground, and generally overshadowed by a twig of 

 bramble or other shrub ; it is more compact than that of the 

 larger whitethroat. Its song is sweeter and more perfect, and 

 its eggs are also very different." Selby also says — " Its retired 

 habits and impatience of observation — always ensconcing itself 

 amidst the entanglements of hedges or underwood — kept it out 

 of view for a long time, and caused it to be regarded as of great 

 rarity and very local distribution ; but the keen pursuit of late 

 years has led to a closer search, and it is now ascertained that 

 this and several other supposed rare birds are as abundant and 



