66 The Lesser Whitethroat. 



kek, kck : the song is a rapid repetition of one whistled note ; it has been called 

 a trill, but is too staccato to answer that description ; a few lower notes are 

 sometimes added, but even these have a monotonous character. 



The nest is constructed at any time between April and June, but I have 

 found more in May than in either of the other months ; it varies considerably in 

 its height from the ground, being sometimes placed among the upper twigs of a 

 tall hawthorn hedge, sometimes in brambles only a foot or two above the earth ; 

 it is also occasionally found in furze-bushes; but I took most of my nests either 

 from hedges on the outskirts of woods, or in country lanes, the height from the 

 ground being about four feet. Mr. Frohawk tells me that the Lesser White- 

 tliroat, when building in shrubberies, very frequentl}^ selects the snow-berry as a 

 site for its nest : he also reminds me of the frequency with which those found 

 by us at various times contained imperfect clutches ; a full clutch being the 

 exception, and two to three eggs the rule. Although the bird itself is very shy, 

 I have not observed that it makes any special effort to conceal its nest, and 

 many a time when I have found it to contain only one egg, and have left it in 

 the hope of subsequently securing it with a full clutch, I have found it torn out 

 by some village clown. 



To take one egg from the nest of the Lesser Whitethroat is sufficient to 

 ensure its desertion: even if a similarly coloured small marble is substituted, the 

 only result is that the bird ejects the marble and then lets the empty nest alone: 

 I never knew her to lay a second egg after the first had been abstracted. Like 

 the Wren, this little bird will run no risks ; if you interfere with her domestic 

 arrangements, she will, for the time, give up housekeeping. 



The structure of the nest is much firmer, and, to my mind, neater than that 

 of the Common Whitethroat ; a pretty little cup formed of stout bents and root- 

 lets firmly interlaced with the twigs among which it is fixed and interwoven 

 here and there with a little fine wool and spiders' cocoons ; it is lined with fine 

 bents, root fibre and a little horsehair. The eggs vary in number from four to 

 five : when less than four are incubated, the nest is probably a second one and 

 hurriedly constructed, the first having been tampered with. In colouring, the 

 eggs vary much less than those of its larger relative ; indeed the difference in 

 ground-colour, is slight, varying from white to cream-colour, the markings diff"used 

 olive-brown, with underlying silver-grey or pale slate spots and overlying dots 

 and lines of blackish -brown : some specimens have the spots large and boldly 

 defined, especially towards the rounded extremity where they frequentl}' form an 

 irregular zone ; sometimes the end of the egg enclosed by this zone is suffused 

 with dirty buff; at other times the spots, though similarly disposed are small and 



