GREATER PETTICIIAPS. 



it feeds chiefly on fruit, and will not refuse some 

 kinds of insects ; it is very fond of the larva or 

 caterpillar that is often found in great abundance 

 on cabbage-plants, the produce of Papilio brassicce, 

 and I know no other bird 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 gene- 

 rally 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 a soft apple or 

 pear." 



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 Whitethroat, with the addition some- 

 times of a little green moss externally. The nest 

 is placed in some low bush near the ground. It 

 lays four eggs, of a dirty white, blotched all over 

 with light brown, most numerous at the larger end, 

 where spots of ash colour also appear.* 



The hidling manners of this bird (observes Mr. 

 Mudie) may prevent it from being known, even 

 where its song is heard. It is a hedge, copse, and 

 thicket bird, and does not, like the Blackcap, sing 

 from a high perch, but from the close cover ; and as 

 that cover is in foliage all the time that it remains, 

 it is not very often seen even by those who search 



* Ornithological Dictionary. 



H 2 



