PLATE CL. 



Thefe diflinaions are efTential, but fliould they yet appear in- 

 fufficient to authorife our diflent from the prevalent opinion, we may 



add a few words further in confirmation of our fcruples. We are 



but partially acquainted with the hrftory of the Greater Pettychaps ; 

 it is a bird by no means fuflSciently common in England to leave 

 nothing of its manners unknown, or to render the obfervations of 

 continental writers, of trivial import, fince among them it may be 

 more abundant than with us, and may alfo have been regarded with 

 more attention. 



The Fauvette of BufTon, the bird confidered to be the MotaciHa 

 hortenfis of Linnaeus, arrives in France in the month of April, the 

 males preceding the females by a few days : they are faid to frequent 

 fields and gardens, often building on the pea flicks; more com- 

 monly, however, they build on thick bullies in the hedges or among 

 the low thickets ; their neft is compofed of dry herbs with a little 

 green mofs outwardly, and fome hair within, as a lining. The neH 

 of the Greater Pettychaps is compofed of dried fibres of plants, 

 flightly conftruaed, and lined with a few hairs ; and is depofited in 

 a low bufh near the ground. The difference in the formation of the 

 nefts^ is lefs obfervable than in the appearance of the eggs_, thofe 

 of the greater Pettychaps being dirty white, marked with irregular 

 dufky blotches of various fizes, particular about the middle, and 

 here and there a fcratch of black. — The egg of the Fauvette is of a 

 dirty white, marked all over with fpots of light brown, which are 

 moft numerous at the larger end. 



The defcription of the eggs of our Greater Pettychaps, is repeated 

 in the words of the original defcriber, as he received it from Sir 

 Afliton Lever, for though, in our colle£lion of the eggs of Britifh 



birdSj 



