42 WHITETHROAT. 
Hedge-rows and thickets overgrown with brambles are favourite 
resorts of this lively bird, and owing to its predilection for beds of 
nettles it is commonly known by the name of “ Nettle-creeper.” In 
May the slight but rather deep nest, made of fine grass-stems and 
lined with bents and horsehair, is usnally placed low down in almost 
any kind of coarse vegetation, or in straggling hedges; the 4-6 
eggs are greenish-white or stone-colour, blotched and sometimes 
zoned with violet-grey and light brown: measurements °7 by °55 in. 
The food consists largely of Zzpu/e and other insects ; also fruit 
and berries during the season. The alarm-note is harsh and scold- 
ing: the male showing considerable annoyance at the presence of 
an intruder on his domain, and often following the pedestrian for 
some distance along a hedge-row, flitting from branch to branch 
with every feather on the throat and crest extended, agitating the 
outspread tail, and anon shooting almost perpendicularly into the 
air. The female is less demonstrative, and generally skulks amongst 
the herbage. The sweet but somewhat monotonous song of the 
male, uttered in snatches with great energy, is frequently to be heard 
by night as well as by day in May and June. 
Adult male in spring: head and neck smoke-grey ; mantle and 
wings brown, with broad rufous margins to the secondaries ; tail- 
feathers brown, except the outer pair, which are mostly dull white, 
the next pair having broad white tips; chin and throat white, 
passing into vinous-buff on the breast; abdomen brownish-white, 
darker on the flanks ; under wing smoke-grey ; bill brown, lighter on 
lower mandible; legs and feet pale brown. Length 5°5 in.; wing 
to end of 3rd and longest quill 2°8 in. The female is duller, and 
has the head brown like the back, while the vinous tint of the breast 
is absent. The young are rather more tawny-brown and rufous. 
Those Whitethroats which breed in the south of Europe, and 
which migrate only a short distance southwards, are rather small in 
size and brilliant in the contrast of their colours. A further step in 
the process of evolution has produced a perfectly recognizable 
species in the shape of Sy/uia conspicillata ; much smaller, with 
more conspicuous ear-coverts, and far brighter colours; but other- 
wise, in habits, colour of eggs, &c., a miniature reproduction of 
our bird. Everyone of ornithological tastes who has visited 
Gibraltar, Malta, or almost any place in the Mediterranean basin, 
will remember the Spectacled Warbler, and appreciate the force of 
the comparison. 
