752 



SYLVIA. 



mality and idle song, a habit to which the vain and 

 half-educated are but too prone. The following pas- 

 sage, from " Sweet," is of value, but we omit his 

 inferences : " In confinement it soon becomes very 

 tame and familiar, and will be much attached to the 

 person that feeds it ; if brought up from the nest, it 

 may be made to sing any tune that is whistled or 

 sung to it. One that I was in possession of some 

 years back, learnt the Copenhagen waltz, that it had 

 often heard sung, only it would sometimes stop in the 

 middle, and say chippee, a name by which it was 

 generally called, and which it would repeat every 

 time that I entered the room by night or by day. In 

 winter it would generally begin singing in the even- 

 ing, as soon as the candle was lighted, and it would 

 sing as late as eleven o'clock at night. In spring, 

 when it first arrives in this country, it mounts to the 

 top of the loftiest trees, where it will sit and sing for 

 hours, beginning in the morning at day-break." 



The Blue Robin (S. sialin), an American species 

 will be found described as the BLUE BIRD, to which 

 article the reader is referred. 



The Black Redstart, or Slue Robin (S. tithys), is 

 nearly of the same dimensions as the common red- 

 start, but different in colour and in geographical dis- 

 tribution. The upper parts are of a bluish ash-colour ; 

 the cheeks, the space between the bill and the eye, 

 and the throat and breast, are black ; the belly and 

 flanks are deep ash ; the middle of the under part, 

 between the black and the ash, is white ; the under 

 tail-coverts, and the rump and upper coverts of the 

 tail, are bright red ; and the two middle tail-feathers 

 are brown, with red margins ; the greater coverts of 

 the wings have white borders ; the first quill is short, 

 and the^ fourth and fifth are the longest in the wing. 

 The female has the upper part dull ash-colour ; the 

 under coverts of the tail reddish yellow; and the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts dull red. The young of 

 the year have a good deal of resemblance to the 

 female, only the ash-colour on the under part is not 

 so bright. This species has occurred in Britain as a 

 straggler, but it is exceedingly rare, and, in fact, one 

 of those birds which it would be in vain to look for 

 in any part of the country. Even on the continent 

 it is a rare bird, at least in those countries where the 

 habits and characters of birds have been much 

 attended to. It is more common in the south of 

 Spain, we believe, than in any other part of Europe, 

 and we may presume that its habits are not very dif- 

 ferent from those of the redstart ; but we have no 

 information to be depended upon respecting this 

 subject. 



In the bluebreast, the common redbreast, the red- 

 start, and the black redstart, we have a succession of 

 four species of birds occupying, as their principal 

 habitats, four zones in latitude, beginning at the 

 extreme north of Europe, and terminating at the 

 extreme south,, but alternating less or more with 

 each other in all the middle latitudes. On the conti- 

 nent those blendings are much greater than they are 

 in England, or all the birds are of comparatively 

 short flight. We have the one which is at each 

 extremity of the series only as a very rare straggler ; 

 the most northerly of the intermediate ones as a 

 common resident, but shifting within the country 

 with the seasons ; and the most southerly of them 

 only as a summer visitant in the more southerly parts 

 of the country. There are not many birds which 

 keep up so gradual and regular a series over such an 



extent of latitude, and at the same time have their 

 generic character so clear and definite. 



There are various foreign birds which have a con- 

 siderable resemblance to these, but little is known of 

 the majority of them further than as museum speci- 

 mens, so that they have little or no interest for the 

 general reader. 



3. CURRUCA warblers properly so called. These 

 are the true sylvan songsters, and the birds of 

 sweetest notes that are known. An account of them ' 

 will be found in the article CURRUCA, in various other 

 articles referred to from that one, and in the article 

 NIGHTINGALE, so that more need not be said of them 

 here. 



4. ANTHUS Pipits. An account of the leading 

 species of these will also be found in the article 

 ANTHERS. 



5. REGULUS Crested Wrens. These are very 

 small, but exceedingly energetic birds, differing in 

 the form of the bill, and in some other characters, 

 from the more conspicuous and typical birds of the 

 family, but still they agree with the majority in their 

 leading habits. The bill, instead of being cylindrical 

 to near the lip, as in the others, is conical, converging 

 to a very fine point, and when it is seen from above, 

 the outlines of the sides are concave, a form which 

 gives it considerable stiffness, notwithstanding its 

 very small size. These birds are accurately known 

 only as European birds ; indeed, their dimensions 

 are so small, and their usual habitations so far out of 

 the way of common observation, that they are but 

 seldom seen. We shall confine our notice to these 

 two species. 



Golden-crested Wren (R. auricapillut). This is the 

 smallest, not only of the British, but of all European 

 birds. The average weight is only about eighty 

 grains troy, so that it would take seventy-two of the 

 birds to weigh a pound. The length in the feathers 

 is about three inches and a half, and the stretch of 

 the wings about five inches ; but, when the feathers 

 are taken off, the length of the body does not exceed 

 an inch. It is a very handsome little bird. The upper 

 parts are green, clouded with ash-colour on the hind 

 part of the head and neck; the forehead, the chin, 

 and a space round the eyes, are whitish ; the under 

 parts are brownish-white, paler on the middle of the 

 belly, and with a slight tinge of yellow there; the 

 quills are dusky, with greenish margins, and the 

 secondaries have a black hue on the base, above 

 w hich there is a white one on the coverts ; the tail 

 is a little forked at the extremity, and composed of 

 dusky feathers with greenish yellow edges. The 

 most remarkable character of the plumage, however, 

 is the crest on the head. It is longitudinal along the 

 top of the head, and composed of two double rows 

 of feathers, a little distant on their bases, but inclining 

 toward each other at the tips ; the external ones on 

 each side are deep velvet black, and the internal, 

 which are longer, and rise over the others, are 

 bright golden yellow, so that the crest, seen sideways, 

 appears like a golden coronet on a black chapeau. 

 The contrast of the two colours is particularly fine. 

 The female has the crest much less prominent, and 

 the young are entirely without it till after the first 

 moult, which takes place in the autumn. 



The crested wrens afford a very forcible illustration 

 of the absurdity of associating energy and power of 

 endurance with mere quantity of matter, as we are 

 but too apt to do. Those who fall into this mistake 



