WHITETHROAT 
87 
abnormal pale blue or greenish-blue eggs oc- 
casionally laid by birds of many species, these are 
merely the result of weakness or disease, as is 
generally shown in addition by the extreme thin- 
ness of their shell. 
WHITETHROAT. 
{Sylvia cinerea.) 
Nettle-creeper, Hay chat. — The Whitethroat is 
one of the commonest of the summer birds of 
passage in most country districts, arriving about 
the third week in April, and making himself a 
rather conspicuous feature of the overgrown hedge- 
sides and bramble-patches for several weeks there- 
after by his chattering little rigmarole of a song, 
half tuneful and half discordant, and his frequent 
manner of beginning it on the top or the side of 
the hedge, and slipping out of sight to finish it 
before he is half-way through. He is greyish- 
brown above and pale grey beneath ; as his name 
indicates, the feathers about the throat are paler 
still, though they are scarcely pure white, and 
when he sings the expansion of the muscles gives 
them a peculiar bristling appearance. Until his 
song is learnt it is this pale and bristly little throat 
of his while singing which gives the best point by 
