SYLVIA CINEREA

Whitethroat.

Motacilla sylvia, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 330?
Sylvia cinerea, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 514,
Sylvia fruticeti, Vieill.

Curruca sylvia, Flem. Brit. Anim., ea/ale

cinerea, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl., tom. tii. p. 534.

Wuen the opening primrose, the violet, and the blue-bell bedeck the sunny banks of the
brimstone butterfly has emerged from his prison and skims the sides of t}
favours us with its presence, and gives additional life to the

coppice, when the
ie sheltered lane, the Whitethroat
scene by its sprightly actions and animated
song, and is so common that there is nota plough-boy who has not known it from his earliest childhood,
or a school-boy who has not provoked its anger by searching for its nest.

At this season of spring I do not know a more interesting little bird than the Whitethroat. Its mirthful,
burried song, which it is impossible to describe, its scoldings and defiant actions when the precincts of its
nest are invaded, the animated way in which it tops the hedge-row and mounts in the air, with erected
crest and elevated tail, must be familiar to every one who has strolled down a green lane, or passed over a
common in spring or summer. The Whitethroat is less of a woodland bird than the Blackeap or Nightingale,
evincing a preference for bramble-brakes, thickets of blackthorn, and clumps of farze. In such situations
it may be met with in England, Ireland, and Scotland ; it becomes, however, more scarce the further we
proceed north. Still St. John speaks of its inhabiting Morayshire, and it is also found occasionally in Ross-
shire, but not in Sutherland and Caithness. It is very generally dispersed over all parts of the furopean
continent, proceeds as far north as Sweden and Norway, where I observed it on the small islands in the
Christiania Fjord, and in the cold season it is equally abundant over the greater portion of North Africa.
Eastwardly it is found at Smyrna, Mr. Tristram says it is extremely abundant in Palestine, and it is a
question whether the Indian bird known under the name of Sylvia affinis be not identical with it.

The sexes are very much alike in size and colour; but a considerable difference occurs in the tints of their
plumage at opposite seasons of the year: thus in spring the head and back of the neck is grey, and the
white of the under surface suffusd with delicate vinous, while after the autumn moult the crown and back
of the neck is more brown, and the tints of the under surface are not so pure. The young of the year are
altogether less delicately coloured than the adults, and much more like the state in which the latter appear
in autumn.

The task of incubation is usually commenced about the middle of April—a little earlier or a little later
according to the character of the season. The frail nest may then be found in brambles or ordinary
shrubs, and generally near the ground. The eggs, hereafter described, are hatched in twelve or fourteen
days, and the young are capable of flying by the middle of June. The male, who has been mute during the
rearing of his first brood, becomes loquacious and busy while a second laying and hatching is performed ;
this duty over, and the sun being now on the decline, the Whitethroat departs from our island, and betakes
itself io warmer latitudes. Its food, while with us, is of a mixed character, consisting of flies, aphides,
and other insects and their larvae ; fruits of the garden and the berries of the hedgerow are also acceptable.

In size the Whitethroat is less than the Blackcap and Garden Warbler, but, having a longer tail, is of
a more graceful form than either of them. oo

As an article of food for the Italians and Maltese, to whom few small birds come ainiss, it is doubtless equal
to any of those known by the name of ‘“ beccaficos,” a term which appears to be applied indiscriminately to
any of the sylviine birds. ; oo

‘When not disturbed,” says Macgillivray, ‘it often rises over the hesige os oo to a height eu from
a few feet to several yards, flutters in the air with fitful and fantastic motion, singing a the nie, and
then drops to the perch it has left. In all its Lorene, g excited, it keeps the feathers of the head
erected, and when singing, swells out its throat conspicuously. ee

Mr. Hepburn informed Macgillivray that ‘in 1838 it was first seen in ae on ee oa OL : ae
when many were sporting about in the same hedge b a ee glen, re x e ao Se
gestures showing that they were not fatigued by their long jounney to ou ae Jern ae aM | oe ee
whiteness of their throat and abdomen contrasting beautifully with ate delicate oleae . a youcaae ae .
they darted along. Every now and then one would start off for a distant part of the hedge, singing all the

. : Need lett < e > , ; rey , day . hey
i I i j 5 5 iy , pr > i cS and ges icula 1OuSs of the body . In a J & \
while, and accomnpan ying its song by curlous Je ] ks c Ss st t few Siu