SYLVIA. 



751 



south ; not appearing even in Germany, except in 

 the winter, or in Britain, except as an exceedingly 

 rare straggler on the eastern coast. Insects are its 

 chief food in the summer, and wild berries in the 

 winter. 



The Redstart, Red-tailed, or Brown-tailed Warbler 

 ( phcenicurus}. This bird is better known, and 

 therefore more interesting-, in the middle and more 

 southerly latitudes than the former. It has been 

 made the name bird of one of the modern genera, by 

 raising the specific name phcenicurus to generic 

 honours. Now, 'even as specific, this name is not 

 very happy on various accounts. In the first place, 

 the colour on the bird is not red but reddish-brown ; 

 in the second place, this brown is not so red on the 

 tail as it is on the lower part of the back and rump, 

 and on the fore part of the belly ; and in the third 

 place, the tail-feathers are not wholly reddish-brown 

 on the upper side, the side from which the colour of 

 the tail ought to be described, if it is to be described 

 from colour at all. But, besides these objections, 

 there is a more weighty one, namely, many other 

 birds have the tail much redder than this one ; and 

 thus, though it is the most red-tailed of Cuvier's 

 Sylvia, and therefore correctly enough styled the 

 phcemcwtu among them, the pointing of it out gene- 

 rically as the red-tailed bird is ludicrously absurd, 

 just as calling the blue-throated warbler Pandicilla is 

 "flat burglary as ever was committed" on the tail of 

 the peacock, worse than "accusing the lady Heru 

 wrongfully." 



The red-warbler or red-robin (for one or other of 

 these seems to be its most appropriate English name) 

 is a bird of rather less than half an ounce in weight, 

 and five inches and a half in length. The bill and 

 feet are black ; the irides hazel ; the front white ; the 

 top of the head, back of the neck, and upper part of 

 the back, bluish-grey ; the cheeks and throat black, 

 the black extending on the sides of the neck and the 

 upper part of the breast ; the rest of the body red- 

 brown, which is deeper on the lateral feathers of the 

 tail, and the two middle leathers of the tail and the 

 quills blackish-brown. 



As a British bird, this species is only a summer 

 migrant, a common one in the south of England, and 

 along the eastern part of the valley of the Severn ; 

 but more rare in the north-east, and very rare in 

 Scotland, occurring only in the counties on the Sol- 

 way Frith, and the valley of the Clyde, and some 

 parts of the Lothians, not frequently in these. Like 

 many of the summer migrants, it is not found in the 

 south-west of England, where indeed we could not 

 expect to find those birds which migrate by short 

 flights, which appears to be the case with all the fine- 

 billed migrants of whatever genus. Syme says, he 

 has " frequently met with it in the neighbourhood of 

 Edinburgh. Though a very shy bird, it often ap- 

 proaches and builds near the habitations of man, and 

 constructs its nest in places that we should scarcely 

 expect so timid a bird to select for that purpose. At 

 Craigcrook Castle, near Edinburgh, we found its nest 

 in a hole of a wall, close by an old gateway, through 

 which people daily pass to the castle ; it was placed 

 within reach of the hand from the ground. These 

 birds often haunt gardens, orchards, and shrubberies ; 

 but they also frequent solitary situations among rocks, 

 crags, and woods, where they build in the crevices of 

 dangerous ravines and precipices. Though wild and 

 timorous birds, they are often found in cities, but 



always selecting the most difficult and most inacces- 

 sible places for the important work of incubation. If 

 the eggs are touched by the hand, unless the hen has 

 sat for some time, she will forsake the nest and build 

 again." 



We have quoted this passage, which has been 

 quoted by others, not certainly as recommending the 

 soundness of the doctrines which it contains, and still 

 less with any intention of criticising the style, though 

 certainly it is very open to criticism. We are aware 

 that Mr. Syme's observations were well made and 

 faithfully reported, because he looked upon nature 

 with the eye of a very clever painter, capable of dis- 

 criminating the most minute details. But he has 

 totally misunderstood the character of the bird, and 

 therefore his conclusions are the A T ery opposite to 

 those that naturally follow from his premises. The 

 nestling in the gateway and in the cities are no cha- 

 racters of a " timid " bird, whatever they may be of 

 a bird of hidling habits, and solitary as regards other 

 birds, whether of its own species or of any other. 

 This is farther corroborated by the ease with which 

 the bird can be tamed, and the readiness with which 

 it recognises those that feed it. Its disposition, as 

 well as all the essential points of its organisation, are 

 the same as those of the redbreast ; and the chief 

 difference is in latitude, and in the season of the 

 haunts. In those parts of Britain to which the red- 

 warbler comes in any considerable numbers, it changes 

 guard with the redbreast, occupying in summer nearly 

 the same places which the redbreast occupies in the 

 winter, and performing services not very dissimilar. 

 This, by the way, shews us the great superiority of 

 Cuvier's arrangement of animals according to their 

 general structure, over even the mere species classifi- 

 cations of those who first make the system and then 

 try to make the animals fit it ; for if ever there were 

 two birds with distinctions sufficiently specific, and 

 generic characters identically the same, the redbreast 

 and red-warbler are they. 



This bird does not, in general, inhabit so near the 

 water, or so much in the copse, and feeds much less 

 upon worms, or any other prey that it can hop after 

 on the surface of the ground. But the red-warbler 

 hops much more up and down, for short distances 

 in the air, than the red-breast does, and it is for the 

 purpose of enabling it to do this that it has the more 

 powerful action [of the tail, and has the tail larger 

 and stronger in proportion. 



Button called the red-warbler " the wall-nightin- 

 gale," and the name has been retained by many of 

 the French describers, who, like our own, have often 

 fully as much penchant for the magnijique as for the 

 accurate. The song of this bird is a sweetly plaintive 

 little song certainly, but it has not a touch of the 

 brilliancy and heart-thrilling song of the nightingale. 

 Besides, it is a morning song in its finest effect, and 

 not begun till that of the nightingale ceases. It is a 

 bird of holes and corners, but it is a very pretty bird ; 

 and it is a bird of romantic places. It comes to us 

 in the middle or the latter part of spring, and takes 

 its departure about the autumnal equinox. The eggs 

 are numerous, amounting to six or eight ; and, as is 

 the case with the rest of the genus, the young con- 

 tinue long in the nest, and require a great deal of 

 feeding. All the birds, indeed, which come to sing 

 to us in the summer, come also to work ; and they 

 reprove those human beings who neglect the more 

 important duties of their situations for empty for- 



