A " FAIRY'* STORV. 69 



world to her even now, and when young creatures 

 begin to stir beneath her faithful breast then she 

 exchanges the quiescent life for one of incessant 

 toil that her callow brood may not call to her in 

 vain for the insect diet which she has to provide. 



By the time the young ones can feed themselves 

 the parents are quite thin and worn with their 

 incessant toil, and yet in favourable seasons some 

 kinds of birds rear a second or even a third family 

 before the summer is over. 



Although the Whitethroat is plentiful in the 

 southern counties, I do not find that people, as a 

 rule, are at all familiar with its appearance, and I 

 imagine this arises from the shy habits of the bird. 

 It flits nimbly out of sight when alarmed, and 

 being of an inconspicuous grey colour, it requires 

 a keen eye to distinguish it when hopping noise- 

 lessly about in weedy hedgerows, where it is so 

 often found that it has obtained the provincial 

 name of Nettle Creeper. 



With reference to the migration of the White- 

 throat, I learn from one of Canon Tristram's 

 delightful books on birds, that Algeria is its winter 

 retreat. He says : 



