216 INSESSORES. CURRUCA. WHITE-THROAT. 



that the present, and several other supposed rare birds, far 

 from being so, or even much limited in range during their 

 periodical abode in this kingdom, are as abundant, and as 

 widely disseminated, as many others which, from dissimilar 

 habits, have long been familiarly known to us. By MON- 

 TAGU, the limits of the present species, in a northern direc- 

 tion, were supposed not to extend beyond Lincolnshire; 

 where he speaks of it as being more abundant than in any 

 other part of England. It has, however, been found to ad- 

 vance annually as far as the Tyne, being common in the 

 county of Durham ; and Dr RENNIE (in his edition of MON- 

 TAGU'S Ornith. Diet.) says, that he is confident of having 

 seen it in Ayrshire, and at Musselburgh Haugh, near Edin- 

 burgh ; though it does not appear that he actually obtained 

 specimens for examination, and therefore may possibly have 

 mistaken some other bird, or the Common White- Throat, for 

 it. For my own part, although I have sought after it with 

 great attention and perseverance, I have never been able to 

 detect it even in the northern parts of Northumberland, 

 where the larger species is abundant. It inhabits the thick- 

 est hedges, in which it conceals itself with great adroitness, 

 and the intricacies of which it threads with the rapidity of a 

 mouse ; on which account specimens are only to be obtained 

 with difficulty and by patient watching. In this situation, 

 its frequently repeated and peculiarly shrill note (which has 

 been compared to the word actcli or atscli) alone gives notice 

 Nest, &c. of its contiguity. Its nest (a specimen of which, together 

 with the eggs and parent birds, I received from Suffolk) is 

 principally composed of the decayed stems of the Galium apa- 

 rine, neatly though widely interwoven with some locks of 

 wool, and with cottony substances intermixed; the latter 

 apparently the envelopes of the eggs of spiders. The bottom 

 of the nest is lined with a few small fibrous roots; but the 

 whole texture is so open as to be easily seen through, resem- 

 bling, though upon a smaller scale, the nests of the White- 

 Throat, Black-Cap, and Pettychaps. The eggs are of a 



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