CHAPTER XLI. 



The Lesser Fauvette. 



Motacilla hippolais, Lin. ; Lesser Pettijchaps, or Beccasigo, Will. 



Description and Character. — The Lesser Fauvette, or Arbour 

 Bird, is more often met with than the species treated of in the 

 preceding chapter, and differs from it a little in plumage and in 

 size ; its song, also, is less powerful ; but in other respects the 

 two varieties greatly resemble each other. 



A fully-grown bird measures 5-|-in. in length, the tail being 

 2-Jin. The upper mandible is blackish brown, and the under 

 one bluish. The iris is pale brown. The head, neck, and 

 upper parts of the body are greyish brown, tinged with olive 

 green. Above and below the eye runs a pale yellowish line. 

 The wings and tail are greyish brown, bordered with pale 

 greyish green ; the shafts of the feathers are black. The 

 under wing coverts are pale yellow. The belly, sides, and 

 vent are white ; the breast is darker in hue, being tinged 

 with pale yellowish brown. The legs are greyish brown. 



Habits and Breeding. — The Lesser Fauvette is a bird of 

 passage." It is to be met with in several parts of England, 

 but is more plentiful in the South than in the North. The 

 nest of this bird is made of dried grass stalks, root fibres, 

 moss, and feathers, is arched in shape, and placed near the 

 ground, at the bottom of a bush — generally a whitethorn, wild 

 rose, or bramble. The hen lays four or five greyish white eggs, 

 which are irregularly spotted and marked with reddish and 

 dusky brown. 



Methods of Capture. — The Lesser Fauvette, like its bigger 



