LESSER WHITETHROAT 
LESSER WHITETHROAT. 
{Sylvia curruca,') 
Haychat. — The Lesser Whitethroat is not such 
a common bird as its larger namesake, and is a 
good deal less conspicuous both to ear and eye. 
But it is well distributed among green thickets 
and brambly hedge-rows in most southern parts of 
the country. It is a shy and graceful little 
creature, while there is a distinct touch of the self- 
assertive demeanour of the Sparrow about the 
voice and behaviour of the Whitethroat, in spite 
of his half-skulking ways. The Lesser White- 
throat is a good deal slenderer in form, while its 
upper parts are darker and more slatey, and the 
underparts more silvery in colour ; it has also a 
much more quiet and unobtrusive song. It comes 
to us towards the end of April, and early in May 
builds a remarkably delicate little egg-cup of a 
nest, considerably higher above the ground, as a 
rule, than the common Whitethroat's, often six or 
seven feet from the earth. It is made like the 
Whitethroat's, of dry, twined stems, but fine in 
quality, and is more scantily lined with horse-hair ; 
the whole structure is so sparely put together that 
the eggs can sometimes be seen through the bottom 
of the nest, and yet it is extremely durable and 
