Description of t lie Bird. 99 



peggy-chaw. This, however, is to tell you — and to those who 

 understand bird-language it is intelligible enough — that he has 

 now a family to attend to, and he begs, very • respectfully, that 

 you will not trouble yourself about it. 



A Scotch naturalist says that " the peasant boys in East 

 Lothian imagine that the bird is mocking or laughing at them, 

 as it tumbles over the hedge and bushes in the lane, and, there- 

 fore, they persecute it at all times, even more mercilessly than 

 they do sparrows." 



The white-throat is an excitable little bird, rapid in all its 

 movements ; and though it will apparently allow a person to 

 come near, it incessantly flits on, gets to the other side of the 

 hedge, warbles it quaint little song, flies to a short distance, 

 sings again, and so on, for a long time, returning in the same 

 way. It erects the feathers of its head when excited, and swells 

 its throat so much when singing, that the feathers stand out 

 like a ruff, whence it has obtained the name of Mtiffety, or 

 Charlie-mufty, in Scotland. 



Its colour, on the upper parts of the body, is reddish-brown, 

 brownish-v/hite below, with a purely white throat. Its food is 

 principally insects and larvae of various kinds, fcr which it is 

 always on the search amongst the thick undergrowth of the 

 plants and bushes where it builds. One of its many names is 

 Nettle-creeper, from this plant growing so generally in the 

 localities which it haunts. 



Its nest — one of the most light and elegant of these little 

 abodes — may truly be called " gauze-like," for being constructed 

 wholly of fine grasses, and very much of the brittle stems of the 

 Galnim aparine, or cleavers, which, though slender, are not 



