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SYLVIA CURRUGA.

Lesser Whitethroat.

Motacilla Curruca, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p- 329.

——— longirostra, Bechst. Naturf., xxvii. 43. 2.

dumetorum, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 334,

Curruca garrula, Briss. Orn., tom. iii. p-. 384.

——— sylviella, Flem. Brit. Anim., To aeele

Ficedula cannabina, Gerin, tom. iv. tab. 392. fig. 1.

Sylvia Curruca, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 509.

—— Sylviella, Lath. ibid. p. 515.

—— leucopogon, Heckel.

garrula, Macgill. Hist. of Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 357, and vol. iii. p.

 

 

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Tuere can be no doubt that the Lesser Whitethroat, which was evidently well known to Linnaeus, Brisson,
and all the earlier writers on natural history as an inhabitant of the European continent, must, at the time they
wrote, have also been a frequenter of our islands ; yet the venerable Latham informs us that he was indebted
to his friend the Rev. J. Lightfoot for a knowledge of its existence in this country, that gentleman having
apprized him of its building, in May and June, among the brambles and other low bushes about Bulstrode in
Buckinghamshire. That its occurrence in Britain should have been first made known by a clergyman is not
surprising, since the men of this high calling have ever included among their number some who have
devoted much time and attention to natural history, in proof of which assertion I need do no more than
mention the researches of Gilbert White, Herbert, and Bishop Stanley ; and it is much to be wished that
many more would follow their example, for no branch of science or kind of study would -furnish them with
more important texts than the power, wisdom, and goodness of God as manifested in creation.

On the continent of Europe, the Lesser Whitethroat is very generally distributed, and in England it is
as well known as any other of the sylvan birds which visit us in spring, and make our islands their sammer
home.

The Blackcap, the Garden Warbler, and the Whitethroats have many characters in common, both in their
structure and mode of life ; still certain marked differences are observable among them, and, trivial though
they be, it is necessary, or at least desirable, that they should be pointed out in a work on our native birds ;
this has been done, with respect to the former, in my account of each species; and I now proceed
with the history of the Lesser Whitethroat. With the exception of Cornwall, Devon, and perhaps some
parts of Wales, it inhabits during the summer months every locality in the British Islands suited to its
habits, from Sussex to the south of Scotland, but becomes more scarce the further we go north. In
Ireland, I believe, it has not been found. The situations the bird affects are gardens, orchards, shrub-
beries, hedge-rows, and woods. It is particularly partial to plum- and cherry-trees, on which, if closely
watched, it may be seen passing from branch to branch, and inquisitively searching beneath the leaves for
aphides and other kinds of insects and their larve. At other times it threads the thicker trees of the
hedge-row ; but it then exhibits a greater degree of shyness and caution. When ina aon WB peculiar
song may now be heard in one part of it, and the next minute in another; it a in fact, Ke be
constantly on the move, going its rounds from tree to tree, and from shrub to shrub, sometimes eee a
river to a neighbouring garden, at others descending into the thicket or ee It is father late Ho its
arrival, and May has generally commenced before the ear is struck by its garrulous babbling note, which,
when once heard, can never be mistaken for that of any other species of the genus. ‘The male precedes
the female by a few days, and, his impatience being terminated by her arrival, the pair soon begin to
construct ahem slight and very frail nest in some shrub, bramble, or among the tangled herbage of the
ditch-side. The eges are four or five in number; and in about ten or twelve days the young are hatched.
If the weather be Gant and insect food abundant, they are soon able to shift for themselves, and leave
their parents at liberty to enter upon the duty of producing a second brood. Again the garrulous note of
the male is heard, and again the gardens ring with its monotonous SS

The Lesser Whitethroat is a compact little bird, and in its form sctunlletice nearly as much to the Blackeap
as to its congener the Common Whitethroat. The sexes are alike in colour ; a is young, ae
bearing a very general resemblance to the adults, are even more neat and pretty in their dress and genera

| f our sylvan birds also voverns that of
e . . . Pear ; 7 * syly; 1s als ‘
The law which influences the distribution over Europe of so many of our sylvi g

the Lesser Whitethroat, It is found, during the summer months, in every country, from Spain and Italy to
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