SYLVIIN^. SYLVIA. 
145 
of Scotland ; but being shy and of hideling habits, is not easily 
discovered. Its song is delightful, in the opinion of some 
little inferior to that of the nightingale. The nest, loosely 
constructed, and lined with fibrous roots and hair, is placed in 
the fork of a shrub, or on the ground. The eggs, four or five, 
are eight and a half twelfths long, seven- twelfths in breadth, 
greyish-white, faintly mottled and freckled with purplish-grey, 
with some streaks of blackish-brown. 
Mock Nightingale. 
Motacilla Atricapilla, Linn. Syst. Nat, i. 332. — Sylvia Atri- 
capilla, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. i. 201. — Sylvia Atricapilla, 
Black-capped Warbler, or Black-cap, MacGillivray, Brit, 
Birds, ii. 339. 
80 . Sylvia cinerea. White-throated Warbler. 
Male with the tarsi brownish-red ; the upper parts light 
greyish-brown, the head brownish-grey, the wings and tail 
dusky, the secondaries and their coverts broadly edged with 
light brownish-red, the lateral tail-feathers with the outer web 
and a portion of the inner greyish-white ; lower parts greyish- 
white, the lower part of the fore neck tinged with red, the 
sides and tibial feathers with brown. Female similar ; the 
upper parts yellowish-brown, the head less tinged with grey, 
the lateral tail-feathers with brownish- white. Young with 
the upper parts uniform reddish-brown, the quills more broadly 
margined with light red, the lateral tail-feathers reddish- white 
in their whole extent, the lower parts greyish- white tinged 
with brown. 
Male, 8^, 21§, Fernale, 5^^, 8^. 
Arrives in the end of April and beginning of May, and de» 
parts in September. It frequents hedges, thickets, and gar- 
dens, is extremely restless and petulant, flits about with a ra- 
pid flight, often hovers on wing, emitting its song, which is 
short, lively, but not remarkably pleasant. It feeds on insects, 
larvae, and soft fruits. The nest, usually placed among bram- 
* bles, briars, or rank herbaceous plants, is elegantly, but loose- 
I ly, constructed of withered stems of Galium Aparine or Goose- 
I grass, lined with finer filaments and hair. The eggs, generally 
I five, are greenish-white, spotted and freckled with greyish- 
I green and purplish-grey, their length nine-twelfths, their 
I breadth six-twelfths and three-fourths. 
White-throat. Greater White-throat. Whey-beard. Whee- 
tie-why. Peggy White-throat. Nettle-creeper. Churr. Muff. 
K 
