WHITETHROAT. 
107 
fields on the other side of the road : in this water are many carps, 
which lie rolling about in sight, being fed by travellers, who 
amuse themselves by tossing them bread : but as soon as the 
weather grows at all severe these fishes are no longer seen, be- 
cause they retire under the stables, where they remain till the 
return of spring. Do they lie in a torpid state ? if they do not, 
how are they supported ?* 
The note of the white-throat, which is continually repeated, 
and often attended with odd gesticu- 
lations on the wing, is harsh and dis- 
pleasing. These birds seem of a 
pugnacious disposition ; for they sing 
with an erected crest and attitudes of 
rivalry and defiance; are shy and 
wild in breeding-time, avoiding neigh- 
bourhoods, and haunting lonely lanes 
and commons ; nay even the very tops whitethroat. 
of the Sussex-downs, where there are bushes and covert ; but in 
July and August they bring their broods into gardens and 
orchards, and make great havoc among the summer-fruits.f 
The black-cap has in common a full, sweet, deep, loud, and 
wild pipe ; yet that strain is of short continuance, and his motions 
are desultory ; but when that bird sits calmly and engages in song 
in earnest, he pours forth very sweet, but inward melody, and 
expresses great variety of soft and gentle modulations, superior 
perhaps to those of any of our warblers, the nightingale excepted. 
Black-caps mostly haunt orchards and gardens; while they 
warble their throats are wonderfully distended. 
* They are generaHy understood to lie torpid. — Ed. 
t The above passage is by no means a flattering description of the white-throat fauvet 
{ficedula cinerea), its evil qualities appearing very much in relief. Its music, in the first place, 
though hurried and chattering, is I think rather pleasing than otherwise, and by some persons is 
even much admired ; while, so far from being a pugnacious species, it is the reverse, and indeed 
affords a striking contrast in this particular with the 
white-breasted fauvet, which has been termed the '* lesser 
white-throat." I have even seen the latter attack the 
present species in wild nature, and in confinement it is 
so quarrelsome that it can hardly be kept with any other 
bird, even of double its size and strength ; whereas a 
number of white-throats will live in perfect amity toge- 
ther in the same cage, their only contests being those of 
song. The white-throat is a very sprightly and active 
little bird, enlivening various localities where its pre- 
sence would in summer be much missed ; and, though in 
the fruit season it visits our gardens in sufficient abun- 
dance, it is decidedly somewhat less fructivorous than its British congeners, apd confines its 
depredations chiefly to the smaller fruits. — Ed. 
Lesser Whitethroat. 
