WHITETHBOAT 65 



The whitethroat, or greater whitethroat, as the name is some- 

 times written, is one of the commonest and best known of the soft- 

 billed songsters that spend the summer and breed hi our country. 

 It inhabits all parts of the British Islands, excepting the most 

 barren. Even to those who pay little attention to the small birds 

 that come in their way the whitethroat is tolerably familiar, less on 

 account of its song, which is in no way remarkable, than for the 

 excited notes and actions of the bird, sometimes highly eccentric, 

 which challenge attention. The whitethroat is, moreover, reaolily 

 distinguishable from its colour the reddish brown hue of its upper 

 plumage and the unmistakable white throat, which give it a con- 

 spicuous individuality among the warblers. It inhabits the wood- 

 side, the thickets, the rough common, but of all places prefers the 

 ihick hedge for a home. Shortly after the bird's arrival, about the 

 middle or near the end of April, he quickly makes his presence 

 known to any person who walks along a hedgeside. The intruder 

 is received with a startled, grating note, a sound expressive of 

 surprise and displeasure, and, repeating this sound from tune to 

 time, the bird flits on before him, concealed from sight by the 

 dense tangle he moves amidst. Presently, if not too much alarmed, 

 he mounts to a twig on the summit of the hedge to pour out his 

 song a torrent of notes, uttered apparently in great excitement, with 

 crest raised, the throat puffed out, and many odd gestures and 

 motions. Sometimes he springs from his perch as if lifted by sheer 

 rapture into the air, and ascends, singing, in a spiral, then drops 

 swiftly back to his perch again. It is a peculiar song on account of 

 its vehement style and the antics of the singer, more so when he 

 flies on before a person walking, now singing, now moving farther 

 ahead in a succession of wild jerks, then suddenly ducking down 

 into the hedge. It is also a pleasing song in itself, although for 

 pure melody the whitethroat does not rank very high among the 

 greatly gifted birds of its family, or sub -family. If we include the 

 nightingale and robin, it should be placed about the sixth on the 

 list, the other singers that come before it being the willow- wren, 

 blackcap, and garden warbler. 



The nest of the whitethroat is a round, flimsy structure, formed 

 of slender stalks of grass and herbs, and lined with horsehair, and is 

 placed two or three feet above the ground, in the brambles and 

 briers of the hedge, or in a large furze-bush. The five eggs are of 

 a greenish white, speckled with olive, and sometimes blotched and 

 marked with grey and light brown. One brood only is reared. 



