I .,„.„,1 the country. Several pairs breed annually in our homesteads, and frequently enter our
■ I “ ! , f food They delight to mob cats, and never cease their alarm-note till their foe retires.
The peasant-boys in M l of East Lothian imagine th at this bird is mocking or laughing a t them as it
tumHes over the hedges and bushes in the lane, and therefore persecute it at all times, even more virulently
than they do sparrows. When the currents, rasp- and gooseberries are ripe, the Wlntethroats dock to our
wardens, and commit great havoc among those fruits.”
That the Whitethroat forms an interesting object for the aviary we learn from the M o» '"S notf ™ ' >
species, by the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, which I transcribe from Bennett s edition of White s
I i B h B i M less shy and less pugnacious. Theyare amicable in the highest d e g re e I and having
i f f „ c..„ .„ „w tno-etlier in the same cage, I never saw an instance of the least dispute between them ,
and one of them hiving been taken from the nest to try if it would breed with a hen Blackcap died the next
day having, from vexation a t 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; bn, 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 no, the least fern: of being
handled. In a room the song of the Whitethroat is very pleasing, and the young ones will a™ *™ » H
some of the Nightingale’s notes; and their excessive familiarity and gentleness and their healthy constitution
make them, to my mind, the most pleasing bird that can be kept g a cage. Their
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 m small quantities as a tre a t; bu,
much variety only makes them grow too fat.” , • i
The nest is a slight-bnilt, deep, and cup-shaped 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 G a bm
Aparine,w ith slender and brittle or flexible stalks of some fine grass and a little hair, all neatly arranged,
hut, from the unpliaut 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 a t the larger end. . . . .
The figures are of the natural size, and the plant is the common Dewberry (fluius Lmn.).