82 AN ELUCIDATION OF 



The length, five inches and a half; bill, horn colour or dusky ; 

 upper mandible bent at the tip, and rather longer than the under ; 

 irides, hazel ; nostrils, beset with bristles; top of the head, neck, 

 back, and tail coverts, olive- green ; throat and cheeks, yellow, paler 

 on the breast ; belly and vent of a most beautiful silvery white ; 

 through the eye passes a yellow line ; wings and coverts, brown or 

 ash gray, and edged with green ; the tail consists of twelve feathers, 

 rather forked, and of a brown colour, edged with green on the exte- 

 rior webs, and with white on the interior, the first feather wanting 

 the green edge ; under part of the shoulder, bright yellow ; legs, 

 rather more than an inch long, of a horn colour ; claws, paler ; 

 sexes, alike. 



Garden Trebling. — Silvia melodia. 

 Bbcfin pouillot. Garten Sanger. 



The Garden Treeling is more abundant than the other two, 

 from which it is distinguished by its sweet song, and this has gain- 

 ed it the well deserved epithet, melodia. In Britain, it is the most 

 abundant of the genus, and does not confine itself so exclusively to 

 one particular locality as the others, haunting alike woods, hedges, 

 fields, commons, road-sides, and gardens. The latter, however, 

 appears to be its favourite haunt, whence its English specific name» 

 Mr. Herbert, a very close observer of nature, says, "the name. 

 Yellow Wren, is very near as inapplicable as Willow Wren, for the 

 adults have very little yellow, except the stripe over the eye ; and 

 the Wood Wren has much more and brighter yellow. I should 

 propose to call it the Garden Wren, on account of its frequently 

 building in small gardens, and approaching dwelling houses, and 

 often entering conservatories in search of aphides." Wren, how- 

 ever, it must be at once evident to the mere tyro, is inadmissible as 

 the generic name of this bird, for it differs from the Wren fAnor- 

 thura) in habits, form, appearance, colour, and structure. The 

 Garden Treelings are very useful in clearing plants from insects, 

 and they will frequently flit about a rose-bush close to a window, 

 clearing it from the aphides which swarm on it. They are likewise 

 of eminent service to fruit trees, especially the cherry tree, which 

 they rid of insects without touching the fruit. They have been 

 kept in confinement, in which state they sometimes become so fami- 

 liar as to take flies out of the hand. They are, also, fond of milk, 

 or bread and bruised hemp-seed. The nest is formed on the ground. 



