TUKDID^. 17 



Subfamily SYLVIINvE. 



THE WARBLERS. 



The Warblers are a numerous family, and include a 

 large proportion of our smaller summer migrants. Many 

 of them, although common, are not often seen, on account 

 of their habit of plunging into the thickest part of a hedge, 

 or among the dense herbage fringing streams and ponds, 

 when they are approached ; but any one who wishes to 

 see them has only to stand quiet and watch, and presently 

 the restless little birds will creep up again into view. 

 Some of them, like the Blackcap, the Garden- Warbler, 

 and the Reed-Warbler, are delightful songsters. The 

 curious Grasshopper- Warbler is quite a ventriloquist : 

 without changing its position it pours forth its strange 

 song, now sounding close at hand, now seeming to come 

 from a distance. The tiny Gold-crest confines itself almost 

 exclusively to the fir, its favourite tree. The Willow- 

 Warblers are ever on the move, searching the leaves for 

 minute insects and insects' eggs. The aquatic Warblers 

 seldom seem to sleep, singing sometimes all through the 

 summer's night. 



Whitethroat. Sylvia cinerea (Linn.). 



[\Vhittybeard,WliitcDrot,Xettlc-creeper, Hay-sucker, Bee-bird: Bev?^ 



A summer migrant, common throughout the county in suitable localities, 

 though ilontagu seems to have found it rare in Devonshire, lireeds freely, 

 often in gardens, which it much frecjuents. 



The "Whitethroat is one of the ^io.'fJ Warblers which is commonly dispersed 

 in the summer in the extreme west of England, and is numerous tlirough- 

 out both South and Xorth Devon. Arriving M'ith the rush of our small 

 Bummcr visitors about the middle of April, this lively and amusing Warbler 

 is generally common, and must bo well-known to everybody, as there is 

 not a garden or hedgerow which is not enlivened by its presence. Now 

 it may be seen bidancing itself on the pea-sticks, wlien, witli its crest 

 erected, it will hurry tiuougii its few notes, and then restlessly pry about 



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