FAUVETTE. 



177 



" It first visits us," says Sweet, " in the spring, about the latter 

 end of April, or the beginning of May ; and its arrival is soon made 

 known by its very loud and long song. It generally begins very low, 

 not unlike the song of the swallow, but raises it by degrees, until it 

 resembles the song of the blackbird, singing nearly all through the day, 

 and the greater part of the time it stays with us, which is but short, as 

 it leaves us again in August. In confinement it will sing nearly all 

 through the year if it be treated well. In a wild state, it is generally 

 found in gardens and plantations, where it feeds chiefly on fruits, and 

 will not refuse some kind of insects : it is very fond of the caterpillar of 

 the cabbage butterfly, (Pontia Brassicce, Stephens,) and I know no 

 other bird of the genus that will feed on it. Soon after its arrival here 

 the strawberries are ripe, and it is not long before it finds them out : 

 the cherries it will begin before they are quite ripe ; and I know not 

 any kind of fruit or berry which is wholesome that it will refuse. It 

 generally tastes the plums, pears, and early apples, before it leaves us ; 

 and, when in confinement, it also feeds freely on elder, privet, and ivy- 

 berries ; it is also partial to barberries, and soft apples or pears." 1 One 

 of these birds, which I purchased in Paris, would devour in rapid suc- 

 cession, from six to ten of the full-grown caterpillars mentioned by 

 Mr. Sweet, besides a copious dessert of grapes, — the whole meal being 

 nearly a fourth of its own weight. * 



It is chiefly found to inhabit thick hedges, where it makes a nest 

 composed of goose-grass and other fibrous plants, flimsily put together, 

 like that of the common white-throat, with the addition sometimes of 

 a little green moss externally : the nest is placed in some bush near the 

 ground. It lays four eggs, about the size of a hedge-chanter's, weigh- 

 ing about thirty-six grains, of a dirty white, blotched all over with 

 light brown, most numerous at the larger end, where spots of ash- 

 colour also appear. 



In Wiltshire, where we have found this species not uncommon, it 

 resorts to gardens in the latter end of summer, together with the 

 white-throat and blackcap, for the sake of currants and other fruit. 



The pettychaps of Mr. Pennant seems to correspond with this, 

 except that the inside of the mouth of this is more inclined to yellow 

 than red. That author also says, in Yorkshire his is called the beam- 

 bird, from its nesting under beams in out-buildings. But as he quotes 

 the Motacilla hippolais of Linnaeus, we must conclude he means the 

 lesser pettychaps of Latham's Synopsis, and the chiff-chaff" of this work. 



J Br. Warblers, p. 14. 



N 



