933 



SYLVIAD^E. 



SYLVIAD^E. 



99* 



bush or a low tangled thicket of brambles, nettles, weeds, and rank 

 grass, is generally selected for the nest, which is seldom found at a 

 greater distance from the ground than 2 or 3 feet, and has the outside 

 framed almost entirely of the stems of dried grass. The upper part or 

 cup of the nest is very thin and flimsy at the sides, and the inside is 

 lined with fiuer grass stalks and panicles. The eggs, which amount to 

 four or five, are white with a greenish tinge, speckled and spotted with 

 ashy-brown and ashy-green of two shades. 



C. garrula, the Lesser Whitethroat. It is the Sylvia Curruca of 

 Latham and authors ; Fauvette Babillarde of the French ; Fichten, 

 Doon, and Kleinschnablige Klappergrasmiicke of the Germans ; 

 Bigiarella of the Italians. The whole of the top of the head is of 

 a pure ash-colour ; space between the eye and the bill and feathers 

 that cover the orifice of the ears deeper ash ; nape, mantle, and 

 rump, ashy-brown ; tail blackish, external feathers ash-colour, bor- 

 dered and terminated with white, but white on the whole of the 

 external barb ; the two next feathers only terminated by a small 

 white spot ; the breast, sides, and abdomen, white slightly tinged 

 with rusty ; the rest of the lower parts pure white. Length 5 j 

 inches. 



The female not quite so large as the male, which has been seen in 

 two instances with a beautiful tinge of carmine on the breast. It 

 is found in Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and the temperate and warmer 

 parts of Europe, Asia, and the Deccan of Hindustan. In these islands 

 it is rare as far north as Northumberland, and rarer in Scotland. In 

 Ireland it does not appear to have been seen. It arrives and departs 

 about the same time as the Common Whitethroat. 



In Germany it is termed Das Mullerchen, or the Little Miller, from 

 some of its clacking tones being supposed to resemble the noise of a 

 mill, according to Bechstein, who remarks that, as these notes are 

 heard more distinctly than the other?, they are erroneously thought 

 to be its whole song ; but the rest, he adds, though certainly very 

 weak, is so soft, so varied, and so melodious, that it surpasses other 

 warbler?. Whilst singing in this under-tone, says Bechstein in con- 

 tinuation, it is continually hopping about the bushes ; but when going 

 to utter ' clap, clap,' it stops and employs the whole strength of the 

 larynx to pronounce this syllable. To enjoy the beauty of its song, 

 Bechstein remarks that it should be alone in a room, and then no 

 other singing-bird is more agreeable, as it rarely utters its call. Both 

 Sweet and Blyth speak favourably of its song, though the former, who 

 gives a very pleasing account of one which he bred up from the nest, 

 says it is not so agreeable as that of most of the other species of 

 warblers. 



C. hortentit, Greater Petty chaps, is the Sylvia hortemis and Sfotacilla 

 hortemit of authors ; the Beccafico of the Italians. [BECCAFICO.] 



The whole of the upper parts is oil-green, with a shade of ash-gray ; 

 on each side of the lower part of the neck is a patch of ash-gray ; 

 throat grayish-white ; breast and flanks yellowish-gray, inclining to 

 wood-brown ; belly and vent grayish white ; orbits of the eyes white ; 

 ^ tides brown ; bill wood-brown ; legs and claws bluish-gray. 

 ^^ The female is similar in plumage to the male bird. 



The young of the year have the region of the eyes grayish-white ; 



bead, upper part of the neck, back, rump, and wing-coverts, yellowish- 



trown, passing into oil-green; quills greenish-gray, edged with oil- 



, fcreen ; cheeks and sides of neck yellowish-gray ; throat, breast, sides, 



^ r*nd under tail-coverts, wine-yellow; middle of the belly white; legs, 



toes, and claws, pearl-gray. (Selby.) 



Greater Prcttychsp* (Carruca larttntii). 



The Greater Pettychaps seems to have been first described as a 

 British ipecies by Latham, who received it from Sir Ashton Lever. 

 The bird wns obtained in Lancashire. It has since become better 

 known, and iU arrival with the other warblers in April and May has 

 been regularly noticed. Montagu, who observes that he traced it 

 through the greater part of England, fixes the Tyne as its northern 



JUT. DIST. DIV. VOL. IV. 



boundary ; but he is corrected by Selby, who says, " I have often seen 

 it on the north of the river Tweed." 



All who have heard the bird agree in their praise of its song, which 

 is little inferior to that of the nightingale. Montagu states that it 

 frequently sings after sunset. " Some of the notes," says that orni- 

 thologist, " are sweetly and softly drawn ; others quick, lively, loud, 

 and piercing, reaching the distant ear with pleasing harmony, some- 

 thing like the whistle of the blackbird, but in a more hurried cadence." 

 Selby corroborates this, observing that its song, although inferior in 

 extent of scale, almost equals that of the nightingale in sweetness. 

 It is seldom seen ; for, like the rest of the tribe, it haunts the shadiest 

 coverts, and usually sings from the midst of some close thicket. Lewirx 

 says that it makes its nest for the most part with fibres and wool, 

 sometimes with the addition of green moss, often in the neighbourhood 

 of gardens, which it frequents, with the White-Throat and Black-Cap, 

 for the sake of currants and other fruits. Montagu, who has recorded 

 this habit, states also that it inhabits thick hedges, where it makes a 

 nest near the ground, composed of Goose-Grass (Galium Aparine, Linn, 

 and other librous plants, flimsily put together, like that of the com 

 mon Whitethroat, with the addition sometimes of a little green moss 

 externally. Selby gives much the same description. It lays four, 

 sometimes five eggs, about the size of a hedge sparrow's, or hedge- 

 warbler's, of a dirty-white, blotched with light brown (Selby says 

 wood-brown), the blotches being most numerous at the larger end 

 Its alarm-call, according to Selby, is very similar to that of the White- 

 throat. Early in September it leaves us, and Prince Bonaparte notes 

 it as common near Rome in the autumn. 



Sylvia has a straight beak, slender, conical, pointed, slightly notched 

 at the tip, sides compressed, base furnished with fine hairs; nostrils 

 basal, lateral, oval. Wings with the first quill very short, the second 

 shorter than the third, the third the longest in the wing. Legs with 

 the tarsi longer than the middle toe ; toes three before, one behind ; 

 the outer toe jointed at the base to the middle toe. 



S. sylmcola, the Wood- Warbler, or Wood-Wren. It is the Motacilla 

 trockilui of Bewick ; Sylvia sibilatrix of Bechsteiu ; Cwruca sibilatrix 

 of Wood; Bee-fin Siffleur of Temmiuck ; La Fauvette Sylvicole of 

 Vieillot; Lui Verde of Savi; Griiner Siiuger of Meyer; and Schwir- 

 render, Grosschniibliger, und Nordischer Laubvogel of Brehm. 



Mr. Yarrell, after tracing the steps of its history as a British bird 

 through the works of White of Selborne, Pennant, and Montagu, 

 observes that the bird is now very well known, and is at once dis- 

 tinguished from the True Trochilut, or Willow-Warbler, with which 

 it is most likely to be confounded, by the broad streak over the eye 

 and ear-coverts of bright sulphur-yellow, by the pure-green colour of 

 the upper parts of the body, and by the delicate and unsullied white 

 of the belly and under tail-coverts. 



\Vood-Wren (Sy'via tylvicoln), 



In addition to these distinctions, which, Mr. Yarrell observes, on 

 comparing the two birds, will be found very obvious, he points out 

 the fact that the wing of the Wood- Warbler is nearly half an inch 

 longer from the carpal joint to the end of the quill-feathers than that 

 of the Willow- Warbler, although the birds themselves differ but littlo 

 in their respective whole lengths ; the wings of the Wood- Warbler, 

 when closed, reaching over three-fourths of the length of the tail, 

 while those of the Willow- Warbler reach only to the end of the upper 



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