WHITETHROAT. 107 



fields on the other side of the road : in this water are many carps, 

 which lie rolling about in sight, being fed by travellers, who 

 amuse themselves by tossing them bread : but as soon as the 

 weather grows at all severe these fishes are no longer seen, be- 

 cause they retire under the stables, where they remain till the 

 return of spring. Do they lie in a torpid state ? if they do not, 

 how are they supported ?* 



The note of the white-throat, which is continually repeated, 

 and often attended with odd gesticu- 

 lations on the wing, is harsh and dis- 

 pleasing. These birds seem of a 

 pugnacious disposition ; for they sing 

 with an erected crest and attitudes of 

 rivalry and defiance; are shy and 

 wild in breeding-time, avoiding neigh- 

 bourhoods, and haunting lonely lanes 

 and commons ; nay even the very tops 

 of the Sussex-downs, where there are bushes and covert ; but in 

 July and August they bring their broods into gardens and 

 orchards, and make great havoc among the summer-fruits, f 



The black-cap has in common a full, sweet, deep, loud, and 

 wild pipe ; yet that strain is of short continuance, and his motions 

 are desultory ; but when that bird sits calmly and engages in song 

 in earnest, he pours forth very sweet, but inward melody, and 

 expresses great variety of soft and gentle modulations, superior 

 perhaps to those of any of our warblers, the nightingale excepted. 

 Black-caps mostly haunt orchards and gardens; while they 

 warble their throats are wonderfully distended. 



* They are generally understood to lie torpid. ED. 



t The above passage is by no means a flattering description of the white-throat fauvet 

 (ficedula cinerea), its evil qualities appearing very much in relief. Its music, in the first place, 

 though hurried and chattering, is I think rather pleasing than otherwise, and by some persons is 

 even much admired ; while, so far from being a pugnacious species, it is the reverse, and indeed 

 affords a striking contrast in this particular with the 

 white-breasted fauvet, which has been termed the " lesser 

 white-throat." I have even seen the latter attack the 

 present species in wild nature, and in confinement it is 

 so quarrelsome that it can hardly be kept with any other 

 bird, even of double its size and strength ; whereas a 

 number of white-throats will live in perfect amity toge- 

 ther in the same cage, their only contests being those of 

 song. The white-throat is a very sprightly and active 

 little bird, enlivening various localities where its pre- 

 sence would in summer be much missed ; and, though in 



the fruit season it visits our gardens in sufficient abun- Lesser Whitethroat. 



dance, it is decidedly somewhat less fructivorous than its British congeners, and confines its 

 depredations chiefly to the smaller fruits. ED. 



