62 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



something more than a russet brown bird which only croaks or tooeys; a Nightin- 

 gale which sings is a joy for ever, but a silent Nightingale is a fraud. 



There are very few birds which sing their natural song when hand-reared, 

 and the Nightingale is not one of them : whether the Robin is, I do not know ; 

 I tried to rear a nest of these once, but foolishly gave them some chopped raw 

 meat, which killed the entire half dozen in one day. The best mixture for 

 successfully rearing all soft-food birds is as follows : Four parts ants' cocoons, 

 three parts yolk of egg, one part dry bread-crumbs ; the whole mixed very moist 

 at first, but given dryer as the birds get older : the young of Butcher-birds, 

 Crows, &c., should have raw meat also, because flesh is to them a natural article 

 of food. 



This species concludes the Thrush-like birds. (Turdincc). 



Family TURDID&. Subfamily S YL VIIN^E. 



THE WHITETHROAT. 



Sylvia cinerea, BECHST. 



BREEDS abundantly in Scandinavia and Western Russia as far north as lat. 

 65, and in the Ural Mountains up to lat. 60, southwards throughout 

 Europe to the Mediterranean. It winters in the Canaries and Northern Africa, 

 passing through N.E. Africa on migration and extending its wanderings down 

 the west coast to Damaraland. Eastwards it occurs in Asia Minor, where it is 

 abundant in the nesting-season, in Palestine where it is partly resident, in Persia, 

 Turkestan, and south-west Siberia. 



In Great Britain it is very common and generally distributed, being most 

 rare in the extreme north of Scotland, and unrecorded from the Outer Hebrides. 



The adult male in breeding plumage has the head, neck and upper tail- 



