WHITETHROAT. 107 
at times when flying from bush to bush. Its alarm note 
has been likened to the syllable ‘shurr,’ ana the call-note 
to ‘hwed, hwed;?’ a common ‘cha, cha, cha’ is also very 
frequent when it is m some secluded shelter, but is left off 
when disturbed. Mr. Jesse says that he has noticed that 
it imitates the notes of the Swailow and the Sparrow, 
and has also observed that the imitative notes are always 
the commencement of the song. The Whitethroat begins to 
sing at early dawn, and is often heard at mid-day, and till 
the dusk of the evening. ‘If you be walking,’ says Mr. Weir, 
‘along a hedge in the early twilight, the little creature is 
sure to come up, announcing its presence by its song, and 
flitting in advance for perhaps a long way. One morning in 
July, 1835, when approaching Edinburgh, after walking all 
night from Glasgow, I encountered several Whitethroats in 
this manner, some of which accompanied or preceded me 
several hundred yards, although I could not see one of them.’ 
‘Although it allows a person to approach very near, it flits 
incessantly and with extreme agility among the twigs, and if 
pursued, generally keeps on the other side of the hedge, flies 
off to a short distance, emits its song, sometimes while on 
wing, more frequently the moment it alights, then glides 
along, takes flight again, sings, and so continues for a long 
time. If you follow it to a distance, it often returns in 
the same manner.’ The song ceases about the middle of 
July. The objurgatory note, if the nest be approached, is a 
sort of ‘churr.’ 
The nest, thin in width and loosely compacted, though 
still elastic and not flimsy, is placed near the ground, not 
more than two or three feet above it, in a low hedge, or 
sometimes in a bramble, furze, sloe, ale rose, or other ibueslh. 
as also frequently among nettles or other tall weeds or her- 
baceous plants on the ground, or beside a bank; Mr. Jesse 
mentions one built in a vine close to a window. it is for 
the most part a ‘straw-built shed,’ composed chiefly of dried 
stalks of grasses, though other plants are occasionally used, 
and lined with finer portions of the same, and a good deal 
of hair of various kinds, with which it is often, though not 
always, thickly woven on the inside, which gives it accord- 
ingly more or less consistency. The same situation is frequently 
resorted to year after year; a trifling disturbance wii cause 
the owner to desert it before the eggs are laid, but the 
reverse is the case afterwards: much care is not taken im its 
