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ALLEYS NATURALIST’S LIBRARY. 
ern portion, and the Outer Hebrides. It is an occas’onal visitof 
only to the Orkney and Shetland Isles. 
Range outside the British Islands. — Occurs throughout the greater 
part of Europe, but is rarer in the Mediterranean countries, 
where it is known chiefly as a winter visitor, or more especially 
as a migrant. Its breeding range extends as high as 65° N. 
lat. in Scandinavia, and to 60° in the Ural Mountains, and it 
apparently extends eastwards as far as Persia and Turkestan, 
hut in the latter country it is probably replaced by an allied 
race, Sylvia fuscipilea , which inhabits the Altai and Tianschan 
Mountains, and it is this race which winters in North-western 
India. The specimens in the British Museum show the 
slightly darker head, from which the eastern race takes its 
name; but they seem to be approached in this respect by many 
European examples, though Mr. Seebohm says that they are 
not only larger birds, as a rule, but lay larger eggs. 
In winter the Whitethroat migrates by the Nile Valley, 
through North-eastern Africa, to the Cape Colony and Damara 
Land. 
Habits. — This is a very lively little bird, and one of the best 
known of our summer visitors, arriving towards the end of 
April, and leaving for its African winter home in the end of 
September. It is found in all sorts of situations, and builds 
its nest in a variety of places, but is, perhaps, more often seen 
in the hedge-rows than anywhere else, particularly where 
brambles or beds of nettles clothe the sides. In the latter it 
often places its nest, suspended in the stalks and well hidden 
from sight ; it is doubtless this fact that has gained for the bird 
the name of “ Nettle-Creeper ” in many districts. In North- 
amptonshire we always knew it as the “ Hay-Chat,” and 
another myth connected with its nesting in our schoolboy 
days in the above-named county, was that when one could 
see through the nest, the latter was ready for eggs. As its 
framework is very slight, the nest is always more or less 
transparent. As a rule, the Whitethroat is easily observed, 
and is a frequent object in any walk in the country near 
London, especially in the market-gardens in the western 
suburbs, and the white throat of the bird renders him at once 
conspicuous, as he flies across the road on to the top of a 
