Sojnc Account of the British SoJig Birds. 419 



summer. His young also sing faintly in the autumn. Both 

 these birds evince their fears by a low chuck-chucking note ; 

 and the last his surprise, by a loud scream of shrill notes, 

 while he retreats from the object of his alarm. 



Turdtis iliacus, Redwing. — This bird not breeding in this 

 country, we are ignorant of his love-song, or of his powers 

 as a solo singer : but, before the vast flocks of them leave us 

 in the spring, they treat us with many concerts. Assembling 

 on the tops of tall trees, they commence viva ttdti a soft 

 chorus of agreeable sounds, even approaching to harmony. 

 Hence they are called by the country people " harmony 

 birds." The Turdus pilaris (fieldfare) often joins those assem- 

 blies. 



Yunx Torquilla^ Wryneck. — This bird has a kind of song. 

 Seated on a topmost bough, looking every way around him, 

 he utters, every now and then, a short strain of uniform notes. 

 He is called " the cuckoo's mate," because they generally 

 arrive with us about the same time. His call is probably an 

 invitation to his own mate. This bird is nearly allied to the 

 woodpeckers. They live chiefly on the larvae of insects which 

 breed in decayed wood. For the purpose of seizing their 

 prey, they are furnished with a long elastic tongue, barbed at 

 the end ; which, being insinuated into the perforations made 

 by worms, readily draws them forth to be devoured. The 

 larger spotted woodpecker (Picus major), in order to rouse 

 the insects from recesses beyond the reach of their tongue, 

 give the dead branch a vigorous jar with their strong bill, 

 and then watch to seize them as they escape. It has been 

 questioned whether this tribe of birds damage timber. I 

 think they do not, because they never wound sound timber ; 

 their borings and eyelet holes being only made to reach their 

 food, or to form avenues into the hollow trunk to nestle in. I 

 ^Iso think that the recent failure of many ornamental trees, in 

 populous places, is mostly to be attributed to the absence of 

 these insect-eating birds, which, no doubt, prey on the perfect 

 insects as well as on their larvae. 



^Yiirdus xiscivonis, Missel Tkriish. — This is said to be our 

 largest singing bird ; and so it is, strictly speaking, though it 

 is well known that both the rook and jay, " in the gaiety of 

 their hearts," as the Rev. G. White says, " try to sing." But 

 the missel bird has a set song, which he gives with more 

 force than effect. The fact is, he is a mere babbler, repeating 

 his three or four notes incessantly for an hour at a stretch ; 

 and just as tedious as the old laconic song of 



" At the siege of Belleisle, 

 I was there all the while," 



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