104 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



ground, by the sides of the hedgerows in the thorns and 

 tangled grass, amongst heaps of hedge clippings, and in 

 nettles and in the hedgerows, but always well concealed 

 by surrounding vegetation, we find it ; sometimes six 

 feet or more from the ground, at other times but a few 

 inches. It is made of the finer kinds of dry grass stems, 

 and lined with a few fibrous rootlets and a little horse- 

 hair ; though a flimsy looking structure in the extreme, 

 still strong enough for its purpose. The eggs, very 

 seldom more than five in number, are dull greenish- 

 white, with greenish-brown and very faint purple blotches, 

 also a few deep brown specks, very often forming a zone 

 round the larger end. The Whitethroat, as a rule, 

 displays silence as a protective power, but once away 

 from the vicinity of her nest, she is one of the noisiest 

 little birds we meet. As soon as the young can fly they 

 are abandoned by their parents, who likewise separate ; 

 and then we see the Whitethroat as a solitary bird, living 

 alone until the time of migration arrives. 



In the moulting season, which invariably takes place 

 in July and August, the Whitethroat becomes a very 

 shy and retiring little creature, seldom venturing far 

 from its home in the tangled hedgerows. So silent do 

 the birds now keep, that we are apt to think they have 

 departed for the south, but in a few weeks we find them 

 lively and trustful as ever, but with this difference, the 

 males no longer flit from spray to spray, uttering their 

 charming song. By the second week in September, 

 sometimes a little sooner, the unerring and resistless 

 impulse that sent the little Whitethroat so far for the 

 purpose of rearing its young, again calls upon it to return 

 to the land from whence it came. Though food be in 

 abundance and the weather calm and genial, still at the 

 allotted time it leaves us for southern shores. I am 



