68 FAMILIAR WILD BjtRDS. 



iu flight. Like the tail, the wings are dark brown, 

 each feather being edged with a light rusty brown; the 

 throat and belly are white ; the breast, sides, and vent are 

 very pale grey, tinted in a beautiful manner with a 

 delicate rosy Hesh-colour. 



The AVhiteUiroat is non-gregarious, for, although 

 many j)airs may be building in a neighbourhood, they do 

 not associate, as with some birds, but kee[) strictly to 

 themselves; and, indeed, it is seldom that even__a pair 

 are seen together, each seeming to have its separate walk 

 in life. 



The male birds arrive in England several days before 

 ihe females, as is the ease with others of the Sylvidir, 

 and they are generally here by the second week in 

 April. "When they have paired, they tix ui)on a nesting- 

 place, which, however, is in most varied positions : 

 sometimes in a hedgerow (even close to a road), iu the 

 furze upon the sides of hills, or waste lands; at other 

 times in a bush in a garden; but oftener perhaps iu 

 brambles, or the bashes of the wild rose that grow among 

 little thickets, which the hand of the modern practical 

 farmer has left antouched. 



In the security of this priekly_ retreat the pah- of 

 birds build a deepjiyst, thinly eonstructed of dry j^tjiss, 

 lichens, and wool, lined with horsehair, and therein the 

 feimde deposits from four to live eggs : their colmr is a 

 dirty greenish- white, spotted and specdded with green and 

 brown ish-gi-ey. 



During nesting-time especially, the male bird sings 

 his song under varying cireumstanees, and cunse([uently 

 in varying manner. lie seems at this time, however, to 

 be somewhat pugnacious, as when singing he elevates 



