40 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
WHITETHROAT. 
Syztvia nuFa, Bodd. 
Pl. IX., figs. 18, 21. 
Geogr. distr.—Throughout Europe up to about 65° N. lat.; also 
found in Western Asia; arrives in Great Britain in April or May, but 
migrates to N. Africa in September. 
Food.—Insects in all stages, berries, peas, currants, &c. 
Nest.—Lightly constructed of dried stalks of plants and grasses, 
with here and there little woolly knots of spiders’ web, lined with fine 
bents and horsehair. 
Position of nest.—Low down in small loose bushes, brambles or 
nettles. 
Number of eggs.—4-5 ; rarely 6. 
Time of nidification—V-VI. May. 
The nest of this species is, as a rule, wonderfully uniform 
in construction ; in a series of ten nests taken by myself 
during two consecutive years only two are worthy of note; 
one of these is chiefly remarkable for its unusual size, the 
diameter of the interior of the cup measuring nearly three 
inches (about three-quarters of an inch more than usual), 
and being thickly lined with black hair; the other nest is 
rather thickly edged with pieces of sheep’s wool twisted 
into the grasses; at the same time there is considerable 
difference in the strength of the nests, for, although most 
of them are loosely put together and extremely light, I have 
met with them as thick and firm in the walls as the 
majority of the nests of the Sedge Warbler, and, where 
both birds are breeding in the same cover, it is necessary 
to be wide awake so as not to mistake some varieties of the 
eggs of the Sedge Warbler for those of the Whitethroat ; 
there is, however, rarely any difficulty in distinguishing 
them. 
Unless the eggs are partly incubated, the parent bird 
usually slips off them very quietly as one approaches, and 
flies for some distance near the ground before rising, so 
that I have, when not expecting to meet with the nest, on 
more than one occasion imagined that I had seen nothing 
more than the hurried departure of a field mouse; when 
flushed, however, its flight 1s sudden and startling. 
