BRITISH SONG-BIRDS. l4l 



quick, lively, loud, and piercing, reaching the dis* 

 tant ear with pleasing harmony, something like the 

 whistle of the blackbird, but in a more hun-ied ca- 

 dence : Sings frequently after sunset. This bird 

 chiefly inhabits thick hedges, where it makes a nest 

 composed of goose-grass and other fibrous plants, 

 fiimsily put together, like that of the common 

 white-throat, with the addition of a little green 

 moss externally : the nest is placed in some bush 

 near the ground. It lays four eggs, about the size 

 of a hedge-sparrow's, weighing about thirty-six 

 grains, of a dirty white, blotched all over with 

 light-brown, most numerous at the large end, 

 where spots of ash-colour also appear. In Wilt- 

 shire, where we have found this species not un- 

 common, it resorts to gardens in the latter end of 

 summer, together with the whitethroat and black- 

 cap, for the sake of currants and other fruit." — 

 And Mr Bewick says : — " This bird frequents 

 thickets, and is seldom to be seen out of covert ; it 

 secretes itself in the thickest parts of bushes, from 

 whence it may be heard, but seldom seen. It is 

 truly a mocking-bird, imitating the notes of va- 

 rious kinds, generally beginning with those of the 

 swallow, and ending with the full song of the black- 



