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WHITETHROAT. 



Case 33. 



These lively little migrants soon make their 

 arrival known, by showing themselves singing and 

 chattering on the top of the first hedge they reach 

 after landing on our shores for their summer visit. 



They seem happy enough when they reach our 

 coast, but I have noticed them very hard pressed 

 during a fresh north-west wind in the Channel. 



They appear to fly low to escape the force of 

 the wind, and this unfortunately leads to their 

 being struck down by the spray, when some 

 unusually heavy sea happens to break right in front 

 of them. 



I believe that the smaller birds of passage 

 seldom attempt to cross in the face of a gale, but 

 that they will occasionally make a mistake in the 

 weather I have good proof, as I have picked up 

 several (particularly of this species) floating dead 

 on the water, a few miles off the south coast. 



They are remarkably neat and handsome birds 

 when they first arrive, but the cares of a family, 

 together with the toil of providing for their wants, 

 soon takes the gloss off their coats, and by the end 

 of the summer they generally have a most ragged 

 and disreputable appearance. 



The specimens in the case were obtained in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of Brighton during 

 the summer of 1870. The old birds are not the 

 parents of the young, being shot earlier in the 

 season. 



LESSER WHITETHROAT. 



Case 34. 



The Lesser Whitethroat is by no means so 

 abundant as the Common. I have, however, 

 noticed it in considerable numbers in the grass 

 country about Harrow-on-the-Hill, in Middlesex. 



