44 PECULIAR HABITS. 



Peggy White-throat, Nettle Creeper, Churr, Muff, Muffet, 

 Muftie, Beardy, Blethering Tarn, Whattie, Whiskey. We 

 have here a good choice of epithets, most of them more 

 expressive than elegant, but serving to show that we are 

 now treating of a well-known and popular bird. A lively 

 and loquacioiis fellow it is, about five inches and three 

 quarters in length, with a dress the upper portion of which 

 is light greyish brown, warmed up with red on the wing 

 coverts and fore part of the neck, the under part being 

 greyish white. It is among brambles or briars, or the 

 rank herbage in the vicinity of a hedge or thicket, that 

 we must look for the nest, which is elegantly, although 

 somewhat loosely constructed, of the withered stems of 

 goose grass, and other slender stalks, and lined with fine 

 grass and a little hair, neatly smoothed. The eggs are 

 generally five in number, of a greenish white colour, 

 spotted and freckled with greenish and purplish grey; 

 their average length is nine twelfths of an inch. This is 

 called by Sweet the Larger White-throat ; by Wood the 

 White-throated Fauvet ; and by Macgillivray the White- 

 throated Warbler ; it is most commonly known, however, 

 as the White-throat. According to the author last named, 

 it 



Arrives in this country from the 20th April to the 10th of May, 

 and immediately betakes itself to the thickets or hawthorn hedges, 

 where its presence may be detected by the short, pleasantly modu- 

 lated warble of a few notes, which it emits at intervals. Were it not 

 for this habit it would be difficult to discover it, for although it 

 allows a person to approach very near, it flits incessantly, and with 

 extreme agility, among the twigs, and, if pursued, generally keeps 

 on the other side of the hedge, flies off to a short distance, emits its 

 song, sometimes while on the wing, more frequently the moment it 

 alights ; then glides along, takes flight again, sings, and so continues 

 for a long time. If you follow it to a distance, it returns in the 

 same manner. When not disturbed, it often rises over the hedge or 

 bush to a height varying from a few feet to several yards, flutters 

 in the air with fitful and fantastic motion, singing all the while, and 

 then drops to its perch. In all its movements, if excited, it keeps the 

 feathers of the head erected, and, when singing, swells out its throat 

 conspicuously. Even after being shot, you find the feathers of that 

 part standing out more than is usual in birds ; and from this habit is 

 probably derived the familiar names of Muftie or Muffety, or Charlie 

 Muftie, by which it is generally known in Scotland. Its song is 



