Waite TuHroat. PASSERES. SYLVIA. 179 
The food of the White-Throat chiefly consists of insects Food. 
and their larvze; but in the latter part of the summer it is a 
destructive visitor to gardens, being particularly fond of cher- 
ries, currants, and the other smaller fruits. 
PuiateE 46. Fig. 6. Male bird, natural size. 
Crown of the head and the region of the eyes deep smoke- peel 
grey. Upper parts yellowish-brown, tinged with grey. nee a aa 
Wing-coverts margined with pale orange-brown. Quills 
blackish-brown, margined with yellowish-brown, except 
the exterior one, which has its outer web white. Tail 
brown, the exterior feather having its end and outer web 
white, and being rather shorter than the rest. 
Throat and middle of the belly white. Breast slightly 
tinged with rose-red. 
Flanks ash-grey, tinged with red. Bill and legs blackish- 
brown. Irides yellowish-brown. 
The young have the reddish-brown of the upper parts of 
a deeper shade than the adults; and have also a white 
space between the bill and the eye; and, in them, the 
outer web of the exterior quill is of a pale reddish- 
brown colour, instead of being white. The tints of plu- 
mage in the female are less pure, and more inclining to 
reddish-brown than in the male bird. Breast white, and 
without the rosy tint. 
NOTE. 
I am aware that another species of Sylvia occurs in the 
southern counties of England, and which has been described 
by Monracu under the trivial name of the Lesser White- 
Throat; but not having been able to meet with a recent spe- 
cimen of this bird, and being unable, without such aid, to re- 
concile the synonymes and descriptions of the several authors, 
I am under the necessity of contenting myself with making 
the present allusion. 
Mm 2 
