54 



importance to warrant its being ranked as a separate division, undoubtedly subor- 

 dinate, however, in station, to Ficedula, of which it is a modification. In make 

 of bill, the species composing the small sub-group of which the Whitebreasted 

 Fauvet is typical, are intermediate between the Blackcapt and Whitethroated Fau- 

 vets, but approximate rather more to the former — their bills, in fact, differing 

 chiefly from those of the Blackcap and Garden Fauvets in being somewhat more 

 lengthened and attenuated. The Whitethroat's bill is more a miniature of that of 

 the Black Thrush,* (each of which, be it remarked, are the brake birds of their 

 respective genera), while this organ in the Blackcapt Fauvet is more in accordance 

 with those of the arboreal Thrushes, (the Blackcap being likewise a tree-frequent- 

 ing bird). The Dusky Furzelin presents the Whitethroat's bill, only rather more 

 elongated and slender, and in general habits, song, nidification,-J- and eggs, ap- 

 proaches very nearly to the last-mentioned species, while, in other respects it as 

 closely resembles the Whitebreast. Another character of the Dusky Furzelin, 

 in accordance with the Whitethroat section of the Fauvets, is the yellowish colour 

 of the legs and feet, which in the other Ficedula are of a leaden hue. In all the 

 Fauvets, however, the structure of the bill is very different from what we observe 

 in the genera Salicaria and Sylvia, which many systematists still confound 

 with Ficedula, comprehending all these, and, indeed, many others equally dis- 

 tinct, in their vast and incongruous genus Sylvia, now with propriety restricted 

 by most modern systematists to a truly sylvan group, the different species of 

 Pettychaps, often popularly confused under the one name of " Willow Wren." 

 It may be added, that the different species of Fauvet,, even before they have a 

 feather, may be told from the other genera just alluded to, by the red colour of 

 the interior of the mouth, which in Sylvia is yellow, and in Salicaria either yellow 

 or orange. 



The Whitebreasted Fauvet exhibits a habit, in confinement, in common with 

 the Dusky Furzelin, which is not observable in any of its British congeners, — 

 that of climbing up the wires of its cage by repeated springs ; a trivial particular, 

 no doubt, but which is quite worthy of notice in connexion with its other peculiari- 

 ties, as tending, together with many similar accordances, to intimate its near affi- 

 nity to the last-mentioned species. • 



This same scansorial propensity was likewise observed by White, of Selborne, 

 who, in one of his letters to the Hon. Daines Barrington, observes, that " a rare, 

 and, I think, a new, little bird frequents my garden, which I have reason to sus- 

 pect is the Pettychaps, [Garden Fauvet is intended] : it is common in many 

 parts of the kingdom. * * * This bird much resembles the Whitethroat, 



" Blackbird of ordinary colloquy. 



t In this particular differing entirely from Malurus, to which it has been approxi- 

 mated. 



