72 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



are being fed, and learning to feed themselves, an 

 odd, small babble in low tones can be heard ; it is 

 made up of a great number of notes, creaky, gurgling, 

 peevish-sounding, and bird-babyish. These mostly 

 are demands made by the young for the attention 

 of their parents, but mingled with them are the 

 anxious and the warning notes of the parents. The 

 whole thing is on such a midget scale of sound 

 that we miss it altogether unless we come within 

 very close quarters of this lovely little warbler 

 family. 



I have often described the lesser whitethroats, 

 but I think it is only by repetition one can hope 

 to give a notion of their neatness, their completeness. 

 To the restlessness and spright of a titmouse they 

 add the grace and choiceness of the warbler. I 

 cannot see the larger whitethroat hi quite the same 

 light, though it has distinctive and pretty habits 

 which the other wants the habit of raising its crest 

 excitedly when its haunts are invaded, and the habit 

 of tossing itself into the air over the hedge and 

 chattering its song on the wing. 



I have seen, too, the garden warblers attending their 

 flown young. They seem to me fussier than the 

 lesser whitethroats, and keep up an incessant " chat " 

 or " chack " at the intruder. One thing is often to be 

 noticed about these family gatherings of birds in July 

 the number of the young is small in each party. 

 Sometimes the old birds are waiting on a single chick, 



