COMMON WHTTETHRO AT LESSER WHTTETHROAT. 95 



THE COMMON WHITETHROAT. 



CURRUCA C IN ERE A. 



THE lively Whitethroat, or whiskey whey beard, as it is called in 

 many parts of Scotland, is one of the most familiar of our summer 

 visitants. In the western counties it is particularly common, 

 arriving early in May, and frequenting thickets and hedgerows 

 until September. On its arrival, and for some time afterwards, 

 it appears to be much livelier and more obtrusive in its habits 

 than it is later in the season; all day long the male may be seen 

 starting to the outermost twigs, and, with crest erect and puffed- 

 *out throat, keeping up an earnest but somewhat harsh chattering 

 by way of a song. Occasionally he varies his movements, by rising 

 into the air full of musical intention, and for a while vainly trying 

 to rival other choristers, but these attempts soon subside, and the 

 capering little fellow comes whirling down to the very spot from 

 which he so pretendingly mounted, and skulks at once into the 

 thickest part of the hedge, as if half-ashamed at his failure. I have 

 frequently observed that a pair of Whitethroats will select at the 

 beginning of the season a portion of a hedge in some unfrequented 

 by-road, and remain there until the first brood is hatched, and 

 the young ones able to shift for themselves. 



The Whitethroat appears to have occurred once or twice in 

 Orkney and Shetland. Mr Graham informs me that it is found 

 in lona, and Mr Sinclair has traced it beyond Loch Sunart, in 

 Inverness-shire. It is, so far as I am aware, wholly unknown 

 in the Outer Hebrides. 



THE LESSER WHITETHROAT. 

 CURRUCA SYLVIELLA. 



THE Rev. William Patrick, whose little work on the Indigenous 

 Plants of Lanarkshire, proves him to have been a careful observer, 

 mentions, in the Statistical Account of the Parish of Hamilton, 

 published in 1838, that the Lesser Whitethroat was at that time 

 common near the town of Hamilton. It is now, however, doubt- 

 ful if the species is common in any part of Scotland. It is spar- 

 ingly met with in some parts of Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, and 

 Dumbarton, and extends to the middle of Argyleshire, but beyond 



