l i l i WHITE'J'IIROAT.
arc always the commencement of the song. The Whitcfhroat begins to
sing at early dawn, and is often heard at mid-day, and till the dusk
of the evening. ' I f you be walking,' says Mr. Weir, 'along a hedge
in the earlv twilight, the little creature is sure to come UP, announcing
its presence by its song, and Hitting in advance for perhaps a long
way. One morning in July, 1835, when approaching Edinburgh, after
walking all night from Glasgow, I encountered several Whitcthroats 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 (he 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,
wild rose, or other bush, as also frequently among nettles or other
tall weeds or herbaceous plants on the ground, or beside a bank; Mr.
Jesse mentions one which built in a vine close to a window. It is for
the most pari a 'straw-built shed,' composed chiefly of dried stalks of
grasses, though other plants arc 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 accordingly more or less consistency. The same situation is
frequently resorted to year after year; a trifling disturbance will cause
the owner to desert it before the eggs arc laid, but the reverse is the
ease afterwards: much care is not taken in its concealment. The
young quit the nest early, even before they are fully able to fly, if
alarmed for their safety. Two broods, and not uncommonly three, are
reared in the season; in the south of Scotland, however, the first nest
is seldom completed before the end of May. The bird has been known
to build close to a public road, and in the immediate vicinity also of
an occupied dwelling-house.
The eggs, four or five in number, arc of a greenish white ground
colour, with spots and speckles of greenish grey and brownish grey.
Male: weight about four drachms; length, from about five inches
and a half to nearly six inches; bill, bluish brown; the base of the
under mandible yellowish brown, and the corners of the mouth yel-
WI1ITETHROAT. 1 9 3
lowish green; between it and the eye is a tinge of grey; iris, bronze
yellow; eyelids, olive brown; over the eye is a streak of yellowish
white. Head on the crown, slate grey, with a tinge of brown; neck
on the sides, pale brownish grey; on the back and nape, lighter
greyish brown than the head; chin and throat, silvery white; the
latter has the feathers somewhat puffed out, as when it is inflated in
singing: breast above, pale dull white, tinged with rose-colour, and
on the sides shaded off to yellowish white, and into greyish white
below; back, reddish brown, but tinged with olive on its lower part.
The wings, which extend to within an inch and a half of the end
of the tail, and expand to the width of eight inches and a half, have
the first feather extremely short, the second and third of equal length,
and the longest in the wing; the edge of the outer quill is white;
underneath, they are grey; greater and lesser wing coverts, reddish
brown; primaries, pale brown, narrowly edged, and the secondaries
and tcrtiaries also pale brown, broadly edged with brighter chesnut
than the former. The tail, somewhat rounded, the feathers being
graduated and slightly decreasing in length from the middle to the
side ones, is brown, the margins lighter coloured, the outer feather on
each side dull white over the greater portion, or even the whole of
the outer web, and often a portion of the inner; the next two feathers
are tipped with the same; underneath the tail is grey; upper tail
coverts, inclining to olive brown; under tail coverts, pale brownish
white, with a tinge of faint rose red. Legs, pale rust-coloured brown;
toes, rather darker, with more of an olive tinge; the claws, dusky
brown.
The female is of duller hue altogether, and is nearly without the
rose tint on the breast.
The young, when fledged, have the bill less dusky than in the old
birds, and there is a light space between it and the eye; the breast
is greyish white, tinged with brown; the back and all the upper parts
are of a uniform reddish brown; the quill feathers more broadly margined
with light red; the side tail feathers reddish white; the shafts
dusky.
Mr. MacgilHvray writes, ' Individuals shot in May vary little in
their colours, and are generally in full plumage, with the tips and
edges of the feathers entire. It is therefore certain that this species
moults in its southern residence. Individuals, however, occur in
which some of the old feathers remaiu. I have before me, on the
25th. of M IV, 1 8 J 7 , two specimens recently shot. In the female the
plumage is all new and perfect; the tail considerably rounded, the
two middle feathers being longest, the lateral three eighths of an inch
VOL. ILL. 2 C