22 WILD BIRDS 



kind of nagging "chat, chat/' by which white- 

 throat and garden warbler protest against intrusion 

 when they have young or eggs almost hatching ; 

 but so like a small bird ! all the time she was 

 protesting and edging near and nearer her nest she 

 was pecking grubs off the tender green leaves ; the 

 grudged moments the whitethroat spends perforce 

 off treasures that are growing more prized every 

 hour must not be wasted. . . . And now she 

 reaches, just above the nest, the oak branch, from 

 which she always " takes off " on each return to the 

 eggs : one last caterpillar there, and she drops 

 quickly into the bush and is brooding on the little 

 olive and brown speckled shells once more. 



Her head tilted up and backward against the 

 rim of the nest, her body pressed down close and out 

 of sight, she sits wide awake all day, her bright eye 

 roving, watchful and keen ; no dozing on her eggs 

 with head tucked out of sight under her wing, 

 as the mute swan sits by the hour on a late clutch 

 of eggs in the nest on the islet. The movements of 

 no living creature likely to prove a foe are overlooked 

 by the small bird brooding on her treasures. 



PARTING OF THE WHITETHROATS 



The lesser whitethroat, in form and tint of grey 

 and white, is just the common whitethroat drawn a 

 shade more faery. In food, haunt, nesting habit, 

 travelling habit, lesser whitethroat is mainly com- 

 mon whitethroat. He has struck out no line of his 

 own in these ways. But, as to song, I find him far 



