LESSER WHITETHROAT. 321 



inserted a figure and description of it in the first supple- 

 mentary volume of his General Synopsis of Birds, page 

 185. This warbler visits many parts of England every 

 year, arriving about the third week in April. In many 

 of its habits it closely resembles those of the three war- 

 blers which immediately precede it in this work, is inferior 

 to them in the quality of its song, but is equally active 

 and restless. It frequents high and thick hedges, shrub- 

 beries, orchards, and gardens, and is occasionally to be 

 seen and heard in lofty trees. The louder notes of this 

 bird have nothing particular in their tone to recommend 

 them ; but in a wild state, if approached with sufficient 

 caution to prevent alarm, or when kept in confinement, 

 a low, soft, and pleasing whistle, may be heard, which is 

 almost incessant, so much so as to have induced the ap- 

 plication of garrula, and labillard, as terms of specific 

 distinction. 



The food of this species is also very similar to that 

 sought for by the Common Whitethroat, namely, insects 

 in their various states, the smaller fruits of many different 

 sorts, for which it visits the gardens, and later in the 

 season it feeds on the berries of the elder, and some others. 

 It is not, however, so easy to preserve this bird in health 

 during confinement as the Common Whitethroat. 



The nest is frequently placed among brambles or low 

 bushes : it is slight in structure, generally formed on the 

 outside with strong bents, lined inside with finer bents, 

 fibrous roots, and horse-hair. As this bird is readily dis- 

 tinguished from the more Common Whitethroat by being 

 rather shorter, as well as more slender in its form, so are 

 its eggs rather smaller, measuring but eight lines in length, 

 by six lines in breadth ; the ground colour white, sparingly 

 spotted and speckled, principally at the larger end, with 



VOL. I. Y 



