54 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



reveal other interesting characteristics of the bird. 

 Its attitude is like that of the nightingale; and if 

 we human listeners do not sufficiently appreciate 

 the song, it would seem that this does not prevent 

 the bird itself from doing so, for during the time the 

 song is proceeding various emotions would seem to 

 take possession of the songster. Sometimes its body 

 is erect, then low-bending with quivering wings, and 

 again, with throat distended and crest erect, giving 

 out its loudest and sweetest notes. It is when these 

 are low and subdued that the more jarring sounds 

 are produced. The nest is usually placed on the 

 ground, sometimes in trees and shrubs above it, 

 though rarely far from it. But the undergrowth and 

 tall grasses of wet woods are always selected when 

 they can be found. The nest is slight and compact, 

 and the materials of which it is composed are usually 

 much interlaced. Blades of grass and various fine 

 plants are plaited together, the whole lined with 

 moss and hair. Five eggs are laid, of an indescrib- 

 able greenish-yellow, spotted with dark olive green. 

 Two broods are invariably reared in a season. 



The lesser white-throat is a bird so generally 

 resembling its larger congener, in both form and 

 characteristics, as to have been long confounded with 

 it. It is, however, by no means so common as the 

 foregoing species, though differing widely from it in 

 ascending higher above its bushy retreats, and stray- 



