156 BRITISH LAND BIRDS. 



breast, but it is longer in the body, and much 

 more slender. Its favourite resting-places are 

 deserted walls and old houses, and ruins, covered 

 with ivy. Its song is sweet and plaintive, some- 

 thing like that of the nightingale, supposing it 

 to be given in music-box style. It is, also, an 

 imitator of the notes of other birds. The food of 

 the redstart is insects. It arrives here in April, 

 and leaves towards the end of September. 



The COMMON WHITETHROAT is the best known, 

 most numerous, and most generally distributed 

 of the warblers. It comes about the third week 

 in April, and frequents the sides of woods, thickets, 

 hedgerows, and grassy lanes ; particularly when 

 overgrown with weeds and brambles. Hence it 

 is sometimes called the nettle creeper. These 

 birds are active and shy, and easily alarmed, 

 immediately retreating beneath the cover of the 

 tangled masses of foliage they haunt. Their food 

 consists of insects, in their various states, particu- 

 larly white caterpillars, and of the smaller fruits 

 and berries, in search of which they visit kitchen 

 gardens. Some of the notes of the whitethroat 

 are rather harsh, others pleasing, but he always 

 sings in good earnest, erecting his crest, puffing 

 out his throat, and jerking his tail, with much 

 animation. Occasionally, he sings on the wing, 

 ascending in small circles and then returning to 



