30 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
firm, as may often be observed in the winter 
hedgerows, when the mossy nests of the Hedge- 
Sparrow and Greenfinch are mere sodden wrecks, 
while the Lesser Whitethroat's, though filled with 
dry leaves and rubbish, is still as sound as a bell. 
Five is the full number of the eggs, which are 
scarcely more than half the size of the White- 
throat's. They are a more or less tinted or 
clouded greenish-white in colour, freely speckled 
and spotted towards the larger end with several 
shades of olive and walnut-brown and paler ashy- 
grey. They vary a good deal in the density of 
their markings as well as in shape, some being 
very slender and pointed and others much rounder, 
but allowing for these differences there is an easily 
recognisable likeness about all of them, in their 
mixture of grey and clear brown spots. From 
Gilbert White's description it seems certain that 
the Lesser Whitethroat was the " rare, and I think 
new, little bird," which, he says, " frequents my 
garden," and, among other habits, " runs up the 
stems of the crown imperials, and, putting its head 
into the bells of those flowers, sips the liquor 
which stands in the nectarium of each petal." 
Gilbert White's observation was very rarely at 
fault ; but it seems more likely that the bird was 
searching the hanging blossoms for the small in- 
sects often to be found in the throats of flowers 
