160 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



US in September, it hardly waits to experience, 

 the words of the poet — 



" The small birds how they fare, 

 ^V^len mother Autumn fills their beaks with corn, 

 Filch'd from the careless Amalthea's horn ; 

 And how the wood-berries and worms provide 

 Without their pains, when earth hath nought beside 

 To answer their small wants." 



Bat far more common than even the garden 

 warbler is the IVhitethroat* {Curruca cinerea), 

 another bird called also Fauvette, the Fauvette 

 grise, or Grisette of BufFon, which is, too, a migra- 

 tory species, arriving in Britain at the season of 

 love and hope, of budding trees and flowery 

 meadows. It is here by the end of April, and 

 every one used to the country has marked its 

 white throat and grey chest and black-tipped 

 head. Notwithstanding that our rural retreats 

 receive at this season a great accession of 

 songsters, the hurried but sweet song of the 

 whitethroat is no small addition to the concert, 

 and none the less valuable that it is heard so 



* The Whitethroat is five inches and a half in length. Upper 

 parts reddish brown, greyish on the head and neck ; under parts 

 whitish, tinged from the breast downward with rose-colour; beak 

 and feet brown. 



