SYLVIIN^E. SYLVIA. 145 



of Scotland ; but being shy and of hideling habits, is not easily 

 discovered. Its song is delightful, in the opinion of some 

 little inferior to that of the nightingale. The nest, loosely 

 constructed, and lined with fibrous roots and hair, is placed in 

 the fork of a shrub, or on the ground. The eggs, four or five, 

 are eight and a half twelfths long, seven-twelfths in breadth, 

 greyish-white, faintly mottled and freckled with purplish-grey, 

 with some streaks of blackish-brown. 



Mock Nightingale. 



Motacilla Atricapilla, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 332. Sylvia Atri- 

 capilla, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. i. 201. Sylvia Atricapilla, 

 Black-capped Warbler, or Black-cap, MacGillivray, Brit. 

 Birds, ii. 339. 



80. SYLVIA CINEREA. WHITE-THROATED WARBLER. 



Male with the tarsi brownish-red ; the upper parts light 

 greyish-brown, the head brownish-grey, the wings and tail 

 dusky, the secondaries and their coverts broadly edged with 

 light brownish-red, the lateral tail-feathers with the outer web 

 and a portion of the inner greyish-white ; lower parts greyish- 

 white, the lower part of the fore neck tinged with red, the 

 sides and tibial feathers with brown. Female similar ; the 

 upper parts yellowish-brown, the head less tinged with grey, 

 the lateral tail-feathers with brownish-white. Young with 

 the upper parts uniform reddish-brown, the quills more broadly 

 margined with light red, the lateral tail-feathers reddish-white 

 in their whole extent, the lower parts greyish-white tinged 

 with brown. 



Male, 5jf, 8|, 2i, ft, if, T 8 . Female, 5i, 8J. 



Arrives in the end of April and beginning, of May, and de- 

 parts in September. It frequents hedges, thickets, and gar- 

 dens, is extremely restless and petulant, flits about with a ra- 

 pid flight, often hovers on wing, emitting its song, which is 

 short, lively, but not remarkably pleasant. It feeds on insects, 

 larvse, and soft fruits. The nest, usually placed among bram- 

 bles, briars, or rank herbaceous plants, is elegantly, but loose- 

 ly, constructed of withered stems of Galium Aparine or Goose- 

 grass, lined with finer filaments and hair. The eggs, generally 

 five, are greenish-white, spotted and freckled with greyish- 

 green and purplish-grey, their length nine- twelfths, their 

 breadth six-twelfths and three-fourths. 



- White-throat. Greater White-throat. Whey-beard. Whee- 

 tie-why. Peggy White-throat. Nettle-creeper. Churr. Muff. 



K 



