THE A CCENTORS. See. C5 



THE ACCENTORS, 



RED AND BLUE BREASTS, RED AND 

 BLACK STARTS. 



TTTB have here a group of birds, which approach very near to the 

 family Sylvince Sylvine birds or warblers, on one hand, and to 

 the Saxicolince Saxicoline birds, or chats, on the other; indeed to 

 the latter family Macgillivray, and some others consider them to 

 belong. In their general habits and characteristics they are pretty 

 much alike, although they differ considerably in appearance; they are 

 all songsters, but not very loud or intrusive ones, and all insect 

 eaters, chiefly being what are called soft-billed birds, that is, with bills 

 unfitted for crushing any hard substances, such as grain, the larger 

 kind of seeds, which they do sometimes eat, although of vegetable 

 food they prefer berries. 



The two Accentors or Chanters, are the only British representa- 

 tives of a genus of the Saxicoline family, and they, like all the rest 

 of the group, are nearly allied to the Thrushes, which are great 

 fruit as well as seed and insect feeders. 



Prominent in the group, is a bird that will at once be recognized 

 as the cheeriest, sprightliest, pertest, and most pugnacious, yet withal 

 the most familiar and best beloved of all our feathered friends 

 Robin Redbreast, of whom we shall have much to say presently; 



he stands alone to represent the genus Erithacus, and his three 



I 



