251 



CHAPTER XI. 



Subulirostres ; awl-shaped Bills. Manakins ; curious Nests of. 

 Tomtits. Wagtails. Redstarts. Robins, c. Migration of 

 this Tribe. Nightingales. Whether they return to same Nests. 

 Ear for Music. Night Singing-birds. Planirostres ; flat- 

 billed. Swallow Tribe. Whether occasionally Dormant ; in- 

 stances of. Migration of. Insects, number devoured by Swal- 

 lows. Spiders, high flights of. Curious Nests of Swallows. 

 Courage of. 



Table XI. Order 2. PASSERINE. 



OF the four genera included in this tribe, three are 

 common in England, but the fourth, that of the Pipras 

 or Manakins, is entirely foreign, comprising a number of 

 little birds of beautiful plumage. Some of these species 

 are exceptions to the general rule of classification, as 

 the upper mandible, on examination, will be found, as in 

 the Manakins, notched ; in other respects, the beak has 

 a tolerably marked character, being short and usually 

 feeble and flexible ; and, as the word subulirostrum 

 implies, awl-shaped, from a Latin word, subula, signify- 

 ing an awl, and rostrum, a beak. 



Under the second genus, Parus, are comprehended 

 the various species of Titmouse. Under the third, 

 Motacilla, the Wagtails, Wrens, Robins, and a large 

 family of singing-birds, usually separated from the rest, 

 under the term Sylvias or Warblers ; at the head of which 

 stands the Nightingale. Under the fourth, the Alaudce, 

 or Larks. The Tomtits are familiar to everybody; they 

 might be called our minor Jackdaws, so pert and bustling, 

 . never at rest, always prying about, peering into every 

 little chink and cranny, and, even in the breeding sea- 

 son, when most birds retire to more unfrequented haunts, 

 still lurking about our homesteads, and placing their 

 nests in the oddest and sometimes most conspicuous 

 situations. Thus, a pair of Titmice (Parus coeruleus), 



