WARBLERS 121 



The whitethroat (S. rufa) is one of the best known summer 

 Whitethroat . . . ; . 



migrants to the British Isles, owing to its nesting in every county 



south of the Caledonian Canal, and being so easily identified. Ranging right 

 across the Continent up to the latitude of the Vigten Islands in Scandinavia and 

 to about 60° N. in the Urals, in the south of Europe it is rather rare, and in the 

 Mediterranean countries is mostly known as a winter-visitor. It winters also in 

 Arabia and in the Nile Valley down to Abyssinia. Eastwards its range extends 

 to Turkestan, where it begins to be replaced by the larger and darker S. fusci- 

 capilla, which winters in north-western India. As a rule, it is a bird of the 

 hedgerow, though it also builds in isolated thickets and in strips of bushes, or the 

 outskirts of the smaller forests. Along the hedges it is generally conspicuous on 

 the top, brisk and alert to all that is going on, fluttering after flying insects, 

 singing merrily, and soaring straight up to sing on the way down. The song is 

 monotonous but pleasing, and is often heard at night. When singing from a 

 bush the bird raises the feathers of his crown. 



The whitethroat is almost as fearless as the redbreast, and will follow an 

 intruder passing the nest, and scold as if driving off a trespasser. The nest is 

 made of grass with a few scraps of galium, or some other flowering plant, and 

 lined with rootlets and hair. It is lightly built in thick herbage or brambles, or 

 on the lower branches of a thorn bush, and contains from four to six eggs, which 

 vary much in the green ground-colour, but always have violet-grey markings and 

 brown speckles. The bird will eat berries and other fruits by way of a change, 

 but feeds chiefly on insects, spiders, and aphides, and is busiest when the daddy 

 longlegs are in season, as they form its particular prey. The throat and 

 under-parts are white; the outer pair of tail-feathers are mostly white, the 

 next pair having only white tips; the head is greyish, like the upper tail- 

 coverts. The whitethroat has a brown back and brown legs, the lesser white- 

 throat being distinguished by a grey back and bluish legs, and its rather 

 smaller size. 



Lesser The lesser whitethroat (S. curruca), which is about 5J inches 



Whitethroat long, has almost ceased to be a bird of the forest, preferring 

 gardens or hedges in the neighbourhood of towns and villages, particularly where 

 there are wild gooseberry-bushes ; its favourite haunt being a thicket near a lane, 

 or a sunny little grove amid underwood. This warbler breeds throughout Europe 

 and most of northern Asia, even beyond the Arctic Circle, and is found in 

 north-eastern China. Its autumn migration takes it down to Africa, Arabia, and 

 Russia, though some of the birds do not cross the Mediterranean. The nest is 

 distinguished from that of other warblers by its small dimensions, being shallowly 

 built of grass and rootlets, bound together with cobwebs and cocoons. It is 

 perhaps oftener than otherwise built in a hazel-bush, whence the bird is known 

 in some districts as the hazel-linnet. In many parts of Germany it is called 

 the little miller, from its monotonous song, which ends in a long series of sounds 

 like the clacking of a mill. 



The garden-warbler (S. hortensis) is a small plain-coloured bird, 

 Garden-Warbler. . . . 



with blue legs, and a pale eye-stripe ; its general colour being olive- 

 brown above, and greyish white below, with the wings and tail dark brown, 



