were dispersed over the country. Several pairs breed annually in our homesteads, and frequently enter our 
gardens in search of food. They delight to mob cats, and never cease their alarm-note till their foe retires. 
The peasant-boys in this part of East Lothian imagine that this bird is mocking or laughing at them as it 
tumbles over the hedges and bushes in the lane, and therefore persecute it at all times, even more virulently 
than they do s])arrows. When the currents, rasp- and gooseberries are ripe, the Whitethroats flock to our 
gardens, and commit great havoc among those fruits.” * 
That the Whitethroat forms an interesting object for the aviary we learn from the following note on this 
species, by the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, which I transcribe from Bennett’s edition of White’s ‘ Natural 
History of Selborne — 
“ There are no birds less shy and less pugnacious. They are amicable in the highest degree ; and having 
kept four or five males together in the same cage, I never saw an instance of the least dispute between them ; 
and one of them having been taken from the nest to try if it would breed with a hen Blackcap, died the next 
day, having, from vexation at finding itself separated from them, neglected to feed itself. I have seen the 
eldest of a nest give food to the youngest when they were just beginning to feed themselves. Those which 
are caught become tame very quickly ; but such as are reared from the nest are the very perfection of 
amiability, and will come out the moment the cage-door is opened, and have not the least fear of being 
handled. In a room the song of the Whitethroat is very pleasing, and the young ones will sometimes learn 
some of the Nightingale’s notes ; and their excessive familiarity and gentleness and their healthy consti- 
tution make them, to my mind, the most pleasing bird that can be kept in a cage. Their general food 
should be ground hempseed and bread scattered together, and a little German paste given dry. Insects, 
and anything that is not salt that man eats, may be given to them in small quantities as a treat ; but 
much variety only makes them grow too fat.” 
The nest is a slight-built, deep, and cup-sbaped structure, outwardly composed of dry grasses and similar 
materials, with a little hair neatly arranged as a lining. Macgillivray describes a nest found in Scotland as 
being loosely but elegantly constructed, the exterior being composed chiefly of withered stems of Galium 
Aparine, with slender and brittle or flexible stalks of some fine grass and a little hair, all neatly arranged, 
but, from the unpliant nature of the goose-grass, which bends only in an angular manner, leaving large 
vacuities. The lining is of finer filaments, with hair of various kinds, and neatly smoothed. 
The eggs are generally four or five in number, of a stone-white, spotted and freckled with olive-brown, 
particularly at the larger end. 
The figures are of the natural size, and the plant is the common Dewberry (Rubus ccesius, Linn.). 
