Sweden and Norway; it also inhabits the w hole of the northern coast of Africa, Persia, and the peninsula
’

of India, over the greater part of which, Mr. Jerdon informs u
1S. It frequents similar localities, and has the same

much more common than the Sylvia orphea and « affins. q :

habits and food, feeding both on insects and flower-buds, and incessantly moving about the upper and extreme

Mr. Blyth, who observ ed it in Bengal, noticed that it frequented Mimosas in small parties

» Besides insects, this species, like the other me embers of the genus, eats the elder-

s, it is found in the ‘ cold weather, and is
3

branches of trees.
and kept chiefly to trees.
s, and makes a foray on the fruits of our gardens, particularly in autumn.

and Rev. W. Herbert, ‘“ is pleasing, but not so strong and varied as that of the

and other berries
“Tts song,” says the Hon.
Whitethroat. It builds in gardens, like the Blackcap, and with it attacks the fruit, though less perti-
naciously, as it is very fond of flies and small caterpillars, and probably on the whole does more good than
harm in a garden. The nest is very small and slender, so that it may actually be seen through; and it is
often placed in the fork of a rose- bush or thorn, sometimes eight or nine feet from the ground, at others
in a low brier. It does not lay, so far as I have seen, above four eggs.” In captivity, ‘it has a little of the
manners of the Tits, often running along the wires of the cage, suspended by the feet, which is not usual
with the birds of the genus Syria. It is of a remarkably tame nature. I have captured a cock bird and its
young, and, the day after it was taken, it fed them upon bread aud_bemp, and reared them, and some months
after it would even perch upon my band to feed itself. It is fond of the seeds of the broad-leaved aa x
A nest which I took from a garden at Maidenhead was cup-shaped, and composed of various dried grasses
lined inside with similar but finer materials, fibrous roots and horsehair, to which, in another Bs a
little wool and flocculent vegetable substances were added. The eggs were stone- or greenish white, speckled
with brown and ashy grey, particularly at the larger end.. They were about 8 lines long by 6 lines broad.
On the 11th of August, 1858, a bird-catcher brought me a beautiful clean-moulted example, which may
be thus described :—
Head and ear-coverts dull grey ; chest and abdomen Fath white, the former very slightly tinged. with
vinous, and the flanks with buff; upper surface olive-brown 5 rump grey ; tail and wings brown, edged with
grey; bill and legs dark olive-grey ; irides very dark brown. 2
The figures represent the birds as nearly the size of life as may be. , The plant is the Bird-Cherry

(Prunus avium, Linn.).