BLUE-THROATED WARBLER. 267 



grass. The eggs from four to six in number, of a uni- 

 form greenish blue, eight lines long, and five lines and a 

 half in breadth. 



"The notes of this bird have some resemblance to 

 those of the Whinchat, but are more powerful. While 

 singing, if undisturbed, it perches on the tops of the 

 brushwood or low trees ; but on the least alarm it conceals 

 itself among the low cover. It does not exhibit the quiver- 

 ing motion of the tail peculiar to the Redstarts ; but very 

 frequently jerks up the tail in the manner of the Nightin- 

 gale and Robin, and while singing, often spreads it. It 

 frequently rises on wing a considerable height above the 

 brushwood, singing, with the tail spread like a fan, and 

 alights often at a distance of fifty or sixty yards from the 

 spot where it rose. On approaching the nest when it con- 

 tains their young, their notes of alarm or anger resemble 

 those of the Nightingale, but end with a short sharp note 

 instead of the Nightingale's croak : the wings are then 

 lowered, the tail spread and jerked up. The Blue-throat 

 commences his song with the first dawn of day, and it may 

 be heard in the evening when most of the feathered tribe 

 are silent. These birds are caught in autumn by snares 

 baited with berries." 



The beak and irides dark brown ; over the eye a pale 

 streak : the top of the head, all the upper surface of the 

 body and wings, uniform clove-brown ; outer edges of the 

 wing-feathers lighter brown : the two middle tail-feathers 

 clove-brown throughout their whole length ; all the other 

 tail-feathers have the basal half bright chestnut, the distal 

 half nearly black : chin, throat, and fore-part of the neck 

 and upper part of the breast, ultra-marine blue, with a spot 

 in the centre, which in some specimens is pure white, but 

 in very old males is red ; below the blue colour is a black 

 bar, then a line of white, and still lower down a broad band 



