PETTY CHAPS. 335 



be all understood, and that a knowledge of any one 

 is, to a certain extent, a knowledge of all the others 

 with which that one is, in any way, connected. 



The white throat, though it does assist in clearing 

 the gardens of caterpillars, and returns, after it has 

 reared its brood, to partake of the crop in the preser- 

 vation of which it has been instrumental, is not the 

 garden warbler, does not take up its abode there 

 during the greater part of the time that it is in this 

 country. The greater petty chaps (sylvia hortensis) is 

 the real bird of the garden ; or rather it comes nearer 

 the abode of man with its nesting than the white 

 throat. 



The petty chaps is a shorter bird than the white 

 throat, but it is thicker and heavier. The whole of the 

 upper part is a dull green, with a shade of grey, and a 

 patch of ash-grey pretty far down upon each side of 

 the neck. The whole of the under part has a tinge of 

 grey ; but the predominant tints are white on the 

 throat, belly, and vent, and brownish yellow on the 

 breast and flanks ; the eyes also are surrounded with 

 white. The song of the petty chaps has not so many 

 notes as even that of the black cap ; but they are 

 clearer and sweeter, and some of them are almost 

 as soft and mellow as the note of a blackbird. 

 But though, at a later period of the season, the bird 

 be more seen than the horticulturists would wish, it 

 can seldom be so when singing, as, though it does not 

 sing so late in the evening as the nightingale, like that, 

 it pours forth its song when " in shadiest covert hid." 



It is pretty generally diffused over the richer and 

 warmer parts of England, and the south of Scotland, 



