PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 3 



month. Incubation lasts 11-13 days (W. Evans, Ibis, 1891, p. 58), and is performed 

 by both sexes. Usually single brooded. [F. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. Insects of various kinds and their larvae, and in the autumn the 

 smaller soft fruits, such as raspberries, blackberries, and elder berries. The food 

 supplied to the young by both parents consists principally of insects and their 

 larvae. [E. L. T.] 



6. Song Period. From time of their arrival in April till about the end of 

 July. [E. L. T.] 



LESSER-WHITETHROAT [Sylvia curruca (Linnaeus). Peggy, hazel- 

 linnet. French, bee-fin babillard ; German, Zaun-Grasmucke ; Italian, 

 bigiarella]. 



1. Description. The lesser-whitethroat may always be distinguished from 

 the greater- whitethroat in that the first or ' bastard ' primary is longer than the 

 primary coverts, and further by the grey head. (PI. 49.) The male, in spring, has 

 the head slate-grey, the rest of the upper parts greyish brown. The wings and the 

 tail feathers are brownish grey, the innermost secondaries being broadly, and the 

 major coverts and primaries narrowly, edged with brown. The rump and tail- 

 coverts are brownish grey, slightly lighter than the back, and the tail feathers are 

 edged with the same colour, the outermost being whitish, having the outer web pure 

 white, the inner with an oblique smoke-coloured band, the penultimate feather 

 occasionally has a white spot at its tip. The under parts are whitish, pure white 

 on the throat, faintly washed with pinkish buff on the fore-breast, and light buffish 

 brown on the flanks, while the under tail-coverts are white. The iris is light brown, 

 and the legs a uniform bluish leaden-grey. After the autumn moult the plumage 

 is somewhat browner, but the fore-breast and flanks have a faint wash of lavender- 

 pink and pale buff. Length, 5-25 in. [133 mm.]. The sexes are alike, but the 

 female is slightly duller. The juvenile plumage scarcely differs from that of the 

 adult, but the upper parts are of a uniform dull ashy brown, and the white of the 

 outer tail feather is more marked, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. This species breeds in Great Britain, the Continent of Europe 

 (except Spain, Portugal, and S. Italy), and in Asia from Palestine and Asia Minor to 

 Manchuria and Kashmir. The Western race, S. curruca curruca (L.), does not breed 

 farther east than the Urals and the Caucasus, where it meets the western limits of 

 at least two Eastern races, 8. c. a/finis (Blyth) and 8. c. minula (Hume). In Great 

 Britain its range is limited, for though very numerous in some parts of the South 



