WHITE-THROAT, (MOTACILLA Sylvia), in ornithology, a species omitted under the article MOTACILLA. It frequents our gardens in the summer-time; in the winter it leaves us. It builds in low bushes near the ground, making its nest externally of the tender stalks of herbs and dry straw; the middle part of fine bents and soft grass, the inside of hair. It lays five eggs of a whitish green colour, sprinkled with black spots. Its note is continually repeated, and often attended with odd gesticulations of the wings: is harsh and displeasing: is a shy and wild bird, avoiding the haunt of man; seems of a pugnacious disposition, singing with an erected crest, and in attitudes of defiance.
The head of this bird is of a brownish ash-colour, the throat white: the breast and belly white, tinged with red (in the female wholly white): the back inclines to red: the lesser coverts of the wings are of a pale brown; the greater dusky, edged with tawny brown; the quill-feathers dusky, edged with reddish brown; the tail the same, except the upper part of the interior side and whole exterior side of the outmost feather, which are white; the legs are of a yellowish brown.