THE WHITETHROAT. 



SYLVIA CINEREA. 



COUNTRY lads call this bird the " Nettle-creeper," 

 from its frequenting overgrown ditches and hedge- 

 banks where nettles are plentiful, amongst the stems 

 of which it builds its nest. " Whitethroat " and 

 "Peggy Whitethroat" are equally familiar names, the 

 former of which often bears the prefix " Common " 

 to distinguish it from the so-called " Lesser White- 

 throat" Sylvia curruca (Linnaeus), a rarer, or at least 

 a more local, species. 



Both are summer visitants to the British Islands; 

 and, although one is called " Greater" and the other 

 " Lesser," there is really very little difference be- 

 tween them in point of size. Hence one reason, 

 probably, why they are so frequently confounded. 

 The respective measurements of the two species are 

 as follows : 



