B L U E - B I 11 D. 



peneral character. Their forms are thick and short, 

 and most of the species stand high upon the legs, 

 and are well adapted either for perching, or for light 

 and agile movements on the ground ; which latter 

 are mostly performed by hopping, though a few of 

 the species (as the chats of this country) can also 

 creep rapidly forward with alternate steps : yet this 

 is not their usual manner of progress, and is only 

 resorted to when they are frightened, or when a 

 cloud passes over the sun, as they run to a place of 

 shelter, with their under parts almost touching the 

 ground : a single genus, however, the fantails (see 

 b/itc-/rntif), use only the walking, or rather running 

 mode of progression. The plumage of these birds 

 is generally very dense and thick, with two or more 

 colours, seldom brilliant, but often rich and some- 

 times boldly contrasted ; and many of the species 

 have terminal winter edgings to their feathers, which 

 gradually disappear in spring : the nestling, or first 

 plumage, is invariably more or less mottled, or spotted 

 with a lighter colour on the upper parts, and slightly 

 edged with black on the under ; a circumstance 

 peculiar among the sylviadse to this division, and 

 reminding us of the flycatchers and thrushes, to each 

 of which families certain of the species present 

 various approximations, both in structure and hubits. 

 The tail is usually capable of much motion, but chiefly 

 of being flirted up and clown, is never long, and in 

 many of the species (as the wheatears, chats, and 

 blue-breast) is rather short, but in these is very 

 capable of expansion. Their flights are usually 

 confined to short distances (though many species 

 migrate), and their manner of ilying is somewhat 

 peculiar, as they commonly drop from their perch to 

 within a few inches of the ground, proceed close to 

 the surface, and then mount often for several feet to 

 alight; settling generally on the topmost twig of a 

 tree or bush, or on the very summit of a hillock, or 

 building, whence, possessing great power of vision, 

 they can espy a beetle or other insect crawling 

 among the grass at a very considerable distance, as 

 Wilson (the American ornithologist) observes of the 

 blue-robins, the subject of the present article. All 

 the species have this habit of usually perching on 

 the very highest point of an object, and ntu<y of the 

 more typical chiefly inhabit open downs and com- 

 mons, and even mountainous districts, where, perched 

 on a slight eminence, their vision can command a 

 considerable extent of surface. They arc mostly very 

 solitary birds, or seen only in pairs, the majority 

 of them never associating in flocks, though the abund- 

 ance of certain species in particular situations would 

 lead to the supposition that they were social ; the 

 American blue-robins, indeed, appear to form the 

 only exception, and these certainly migrate in society 

 but many sorts of birds collect in flocks to perforrr 

 their seasonal migration?, the habits of which (as those 

 of the blue-robins) are solitary at other times ; but 

 the European robin, chats, and redstarts, even cross 

 the ocean in solitude, as the writer of this article has 

 remarked in everv instance which has come to hi 

 knowledge of these birds alighting on the rigging o: 

 ships ; indeed, so little are they inclined to be social 

 that if two robins happen to alight on the same vessel 

 hostilities between them are always soon commenced 

 one usually takes possession of the bows, and the 

 other of the stern, and they %ht on the least invasion 

 of each other's territory. The common redstart is 

 equally pugnacious ; and a flock of either of these 



jirds would be as much a phenomenon as one of 

 noun tain eagles. 



The food of the Sa.iicoliiuv consists of earthworms, 

 and various insects, which are chiefly sought for on 

 the ground; and, like the nightingales (to which 

 some of them are nearly allied), they appear most 

 fond of the larva? of beetles, in search of which the 

 redstarts often enter the hollows of decayed trees, 

 and examine the rotten wood ; these latter, also, 

 together with the bine-breast, and the Australian 

 I'ctrtrictc, capture insects on the wing like the fly- 

 catchers, and may often be seen hovering around a 

 bunch of leaves, examining them for caterpillars and 

 spiders. Others, as the robins, chats, and especially 

 the American blue-robins, feed occasionally on various 

 small fruits and berries, which are swallowed whole. 

 They have all the power of hovering in the air, and 

 many of them often sing while on the wing, the 

 wheatears whilst hovering, and the redstarts as they 

 fly from tree to tree. Even their very notes are, to 

 a certain extent, extremely similar ; and their songs 

 are always uttered in short detached staves, like 

 those of the thrushes, and never (as in the skylark, 

 or the blackcap, and various other warblers) in a con- 

 tinuous unbroken strain. Their nests (which are of 

 loose construction, though containing much material) 

 are never situate on a forked branch, nor fixed among 

 the twigs of a bush, but rest always on a solid and 

 substantial basis, either (according to the genus) in 

 the hole of a tree, the nook of a rock or building, or 

 on the ground, under cover of a stone or clod 01 

 earth, or of thick herbage. The eggs vary from four 

 to seven, and, in every known instance except the 

 robin, are of a uniform blue or bluish white, and, 

 mostly spotless. 



Upon the whole, this is a very natural and tolerably 

 well marked group, although, as in every other nume- 

 rous division, it is difficult to draw a single general 

 character to which some few of the species do not 

 offer an exception. It is a group, however, very 

 easily recognised by all who pay attention to birds. 

 The chief distinctive characters of the blue-robins 

 have already been mentioned; they are formed more 

 for flight, and for perching, than for seeking their 

 food upon the ground ; and their bills are of a stouter 

 and stronger make than those of most of the other 

 birds of this division. Accordingly, we find, in Wil- 

 son's admirable account of the common species of 

 the United States, 



SIAMA WII.SONII (Si/lr/a sialit;, Latham). He states, 

 that "their principal food are insects, particularly large 

 beetles, and others of the coleopterous kinds that lurk 

 among old, dead, and decaying trees. Spiders are 

 also a favourite repast with them. In the fall, they 

 occasionally regale themselves on the berries of the 

 sour gum ; and, as winter approaches, on those of 

 the red cedar, and on the fruit of a rough hairy vine 

 that runs up and cleaves fast to the trunks of trees. 

 Ripe persimmon is another of their favourite dishes 

 and many other fruits and seeds." This species 

 is six inches and three-quarters in length, with the 

 wings remarkably full and broad ; the whole upper 

 parts are of a rich sky-blue, with purple reflections ; 

 the bill and legs black ; inside of the mouth, and 

 soles of the feet, yellow ; the shafts of all the wing 

 and tail-feathers are black ; throat, neck, breast, and 

 sides, reddish chestnut ; wings, dusky black at the 

 tip; belly and venf, white. The female is easily 

 distinguishable by the duller cast of the back, the 



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