CLASS AVES. 



177 



FIG. 304. 



Phi Id me' la luscin'ia. Nightingale. (J.) 



servedly a favorite, as there is no evil blended with its 

 many benefits. Purely insec- 

 tivorous, it destroys alike the 

 pests of fruit-trees, of cattle, 

 and of man. 



The Two-colored Swallow 

 \Hirundo bicolor] (hi run' do 

 bi kol'or) builds in our bird- 

 houses. 



The Nightingale of Europe 

 has been famed from time 

 immemorial for the sweetness 

 of its voice. It is a shy bird, 

 but its song is occasionally 

 heard during the day, though 

 it is most pleasing in the silence and serenity of a moon- 

 light evening. Both sexes sing, though the male excels. 

 FIG. 305. Its plumage is a modest 



reddish-brown above and 

 a whitish-gray beneath 

 a mimicry adapting it to 

 the foliage among which 

 it loves to hide itself. 



The Slue-bird repre- 

 sents in America, the 



sia'iis. Biue-bM. a* Robin-redbreast* [Enjth- 



acus rubecula] (e rith'a kus ru bek'u la) of Europe. Were 

 the blue of the former replaced by the brown-olive of the 

 latter, the two birds could hardly be distinguished.! 



* The European Robin-redbreast must not be confounded with the American 

 Robin. 



t Their social nature corresponds as fully as their physical, and the Blue-bird 

 would figure as appropriately in the beautiful legend of " The Babes in the Wood, " 

 as the traditional Robin-redbreast, 



