56 
elegans), disappear in summer, as if they had been cut out by a pair of scissors.* 
In some future communication, I may perhaps be induced to treat more fully upon 
this subject. 
It may be remarked, that this specimen, killed so late in the year, was by no 
means, as some would otherwise perhaps be inclined to suppose, a weakly young 
bird of a late hatch, too feeble to accompany its fellows at the time of their migra¬ 
tion ; but its quill-feathers having been changed, (as is intimated by one or two of 
them not having yet attained their development), sufficiently proves that it was 
not a bird of that year, as no member of the dentirostral sub-order of perching 
birds changes its wing-primaries at the first renovation of its clothing plumage. 
In confinement, the Whitebreast is hardy and healthy, and may be kept on 
the food usually given to insectivorous birds, allowing it also, occasionally, a 
little fruit, and insect diet whenever practicable. It mostly recommences singing 
about January; but does not utter its loud note until about six weeks or two 
months afterwards. 
As to its distribution over the British islands, I believe it to be much more 
general than is commonly imagined, but that it is often most unaccountably over¬ 
looked, as it was, for a long time, in the southern counties. Mr. Neville Wood 
finds it plentiful in Derbyshire, and Mr. Herbert in the vicinity of Spofforth, in 
Yorkshire ; Mr. Bennie, who, to my certain knowledge, is well acquainted with 
the bird, speaks of having seen it in Ayrshire, and at Musselbourgh Haugh, near 
Edinburgh. According to Temminck, it is diffused over the temperate parts of 
Europe and Asia, but does not spread farther to the north than Sweden, in which 
country Linneus also observed it; a fact which at least negatively corroborates the 
assertion that it also visits North Britain. 
This bird is the “ Lesser Whitethroat” of most ornithological writers, and is 
known in Surrey by the names Nettlecreeper , Grey Whitethroat , and French 
Whitethroat Frequently, however, the first of these appellations is also applied 
by the peasantry, to the Whitethroated Fauvet, but whenever a distinction is 
made (which is more commonly the case with the nests and eggs), the latter is 
invariably the Whitethroat , and the other the Nettlecreeper . In Mr. Wood’s 
recent work on British Song Birds , the subject of the present paper is called the 
“ Garrulous Fauvet,” though, strictly speaking, it is decidedly less garrulous than 
the Whitethroat. I have, therefore, preferred to designate it by the term white¬ 
breasted , which name is at least sufficiently exclusive among the British species. 
That there should be a standard and a systematic vernacular nomenclature for 
our native productions, is, I think, very much to be desired. At the same time it 
is of little use altering unless we can improve. Every succeeding writer approxi¬ 
mates more towards supplying this deficiency, and most of the aquatic birds 
This, however, only takes place very partially in confinement. 
