sb. (a.) (Also with hyphen, and formerly as two words.) Name of several birds characterized by a white throat.
1. Any one of several species of warbler (Sylvia), esp. the common whitethroat, S. cinerea, and the lesser whitethroat, S. curruca.
1676. Grew, Musæum, Anat. Stomach & Guts, viii. 38. The White-Throat hath no small Gut.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 247/1. The White Throat … hath … the upper surface of the Body red.
1774. G. White, Selborne, To Pennant, 2 Sept. The note of the whitethroat, which is continually repeated, and often attended with odd gesticulations on the wing, is harsh and displeasing…. In July and August they … make great havoc among the summer fruits.
1825. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 320. The sweet and soft voice of the white-throat.
1839. Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, II. 345. Sylvia hortensis. The Garden Warbler or Pettychaps…. Billy Whitethroat. Ibid., 357. Sylvia garrula. The White-breasted Warbler. Lesser White-throat.
1845. Browning, Home-thoughts from Abr., ii. And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
2. The white-throated sparrow of N. America, Zonotrichia albicollis.
1889. Science-Gossip, XXV. 146. White-throated sparrows sing magnificently all winter long…. Here … concerted action makes the charm. A single white-throat would prove a trifle monotonous.
1902. S. E. White, Blazed Trail, xviii. The notes of the white-throat—the nightingale of the North.
B. adj. White-throated. Whitethroat warbler = sense 1 above.
1876. Rep. & Trans. Devonsh. Assoc., VIII. 265. The White-throat Warbler…. Common everywhere.
1884. W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 61. O white-throat swallow flicking The loch with long wing-tips.
