80 AfJ ELUCIDATION OF 



pellation for the various members of this genus ; it being as well 

 always, I think, as far as possible, to have a vernacular designation 

 for every generic division." 



I cannot but here remark on the very strange method in which 

 the Treeling family (Silviadce) is classified by some authors. 

 Thus, Fleming, in his genus Curruca, (including the Reedlings, the 

 Fauvets, the Locustel, the Whinling, and the Nightingale), places 

 the Wood Treeling ; while the Garden Treeling and the Hedge 

 Treeling, (which agree in every generic character with the Wood 

 Treeling), are classed in the genus Kinglet ! In Mudie's Feather- 

 ed Tribes, the Treelings are also confounded among the Fauvets, 

 &c. ; and in Bewick's work, the Garden Treeling is called " Mota- 

 cilia trochilus," and the Hedge Treeling, '^ Trochilus minor ;" thu» 

 placing them in different genera. It seems strange, and almost un- 

 accountable, how these three elegant little birds should have been 

 so jumbled and confounded; and with a view to unravelling the 

 intricacies with which authors have, by their carelessness, enveloped 

 the subject, I shall give a few notes on each species, together with 

 the characteristics of each. I may here remark the close resemblance 

 of some of the Silvicules to the Treelings, especially the Spotted 

 Silvicule, (Silvicula maculosa, Sw.), of which there is a representa- 

 tion in The Northern Zoologi/. 



Wood Treeling. — Silvia sibilans. 



BeCFIN 8IFFLEUR. GbUNER SaNGER. 



The Wood Treeling was first noticed as a British bird by Gilbert 

 "White, under the name *^ Large Shivering Yellow Wren," and 

 subsequently it was described by Mr. Thomas Lamb in the Linnean 

 Transactions. He says, — " this is, undoubtedly, a new species in 

 England, and, I believe, a nondescript: it inhabits woods, and 

 comes with the rest of the summer Warblers, and in manner is 

 much the same, running up and down trees in search of insects. I 

 heard it, first, early in May, 1792, in White Knight's Park, near 

 Reading ; and il was there hopping about on the upper branch of a 

 very high pine, and having a very singular and single note, it at- 

 tracted my attention, being very much like that of the Corn Bunt- 

 ing, ( Emberiza miliaria, Lin.), but so astonishingly shrill, that I 

 heard it at more than a hundred yards distance : this it repeated 

 once in three or four minutes. I never heard these birds before last 

 spring, (1792), and, nevertheless, I have heard nine in the course 

 of a month; four in White Knight's Park, and five in my tour to the 



