412 Some Account of the British Song Birds, 



the weather be in an unsettled and rainy state, he sometimes 

 takes his stand 



" On the topmost twig that looks up to the sky," 



or on the " house top," singing cheerfully and sweetly. When 

 this is observed, it is an unerring promise of succeeding fine 

 days. Sometimes, though the atmosphere be dry and warm, 

 he may be seen melancholy, chirping and brooding in a bush, 

 or low in a hedge : this promises the reverse of his merry lay 

 and exalted station. 



During the last winter I availed myself of the ingenious 

 contrivance suggested by Mr. Dovaston, in a note to the pre- 

 face of the first volume of Bewick's Birds. By placing what he 

 there facetiously calls an ornithotrophe, well supplied with 

 bones and other food, before my sitting-room window, I have 

 been enabled to scrape acquaintance with some of the more 

 scarce birds, as well as with my old familiar, the robin. In 

 the early part of the winter, my ornithotrophe was frequented 

 by two or three robins, who seemed to agree tolerably well, 

 yet not without occasional bickerings ; but as the frost became 

 more intense, and the ground covered with snow, my visiters 

 increased greatly in number. Now ensued a perpetual scene 

 of warfare ; not, as would be imagined, for the food, as there 

 was plenty, and room enough, but, oh ! it must be confessed, 

 sheer jealousy. 



'.■ I must not, however, take leave of my amusing friend by 

 relating a fault, without some attempt to justify him. By my 

 last observation on his habits, I am confirmed in the opinion 

 advanced by an ingenious friend, that each bird of this species 

 has a regular beat of his own, to which he thinks himself 

 justly entitled, and the pugnacity which he exerts is to expel 

 some daring intruder's raid on his own personal property. 



Yours, &c. 

 Montgomeryshire, Feb, 14. 1831. Von Osdat. 



Art. V. Some Account of the British Song Birds. 

 By Mr. J. Main, A.L.S. &c. 



(^Continued from p. 124.) 



Having given some account of the warblers * (Sylviae), 

 I now proceed to notice the other birds of song, beginning 

 with the — 



■ * In that communication, the grasshopper lark is called Sylvia trivialis : 

 it should have been S. locustella. 



