BIRDS OF PASSAGE. 



123 



Birds that have somewhat of a note or song, and yet are 

 hardly to be called singing birds : 



KAII NOMINA. 



23. Golden-crowned 

 wren, 



\ Regulus cristatus :* < 



Its note as minute as its person; f re- 

 nts the tops of high oaks and firs : 

 smallest British bird. 



r Haunts great woods: two harsh sharp 

 24. Marsh titmouse, Farus palustns : | noteg 6 



Regulus non cristatus .-Sings in March, and on to September. 



f Cantat voce striduld locustce ; from end 



wren, 



26. Largest ditto, 



27. Grasshopper- 



lark, 



28. Martin, 



29. Bullfinch, 



30. Bunting, 



All singing birds, and those that have any pretensions to song, 

 not only in Britain, but perhaps the world through, come under 

 the Linncean ordo of passer es. 



The above-mentioned birds, as they stand numerically, belong 

 to the following Linncean genera : 



\ of April to August. 

 Alauda minima, wee r Chirps all night, from the middle of 

 locustce : \ April to the end of July. 



Hirundo agrestis: {*%$5*** ^ ^ *** " 



Pyrrhula^ 



Emberiza alba : From the end of January to July. 



1,7,10,27. Alauda: 



2,11,21. Turdus: 



3,4,5,9,12,15, \Motacilla- 



6, 30. Emberiza 



Birds that sing as 



8, 28, 

 13, 16, 19. 



22, 24, 

 14, 29. 



Hirundo. 

 Fringilla, 



Parus. 

 Loxia. 



they fly are but few. 



Rising, suspended, and falling. 



{In its descent ; also sitting on trees, and 

 walking on the ground. 

 (Suspended; in hot summer nights all 

 \ night long. 

 Sometimes from bush to bush. 



{Uses when singing on the wing odd jerks 

 and gesticulations. 

 In soft sunny weather. 

 Sometimes from bush to bush.J 



* This species has rather a pleasing though short song, but which possesses hardly any variety : 

 there is, however, a deal of sprightliness about it, and it can hardly be considered weak for the 

 size of the utterer. The tree-creeper has a note somewhat similar. ED. 



f A low and very peculiar chattering warble, which must always be at once recognised by those 

 who have ever heard it. Both sexes sing alike ; but the note must be considered singular rather 

 than musical. ED. 



t To this list may be added various species which more or less habitually sing on the wing. 

 All the pipit genus (anthui) sing principally when flying; the fallow-chat, black-headed furze- 

 chat, furzeling (melhophilus) , and, it is said, the locustelle, when hovering in the air; the sedge- 

 reedling as it mounts to a small height, or as it flits from bush to bush ; the missel-thrush as it 

 crosses a field, but not very commonly ; the redstart, all the pettychaps genus, and, though very 

 rarely, the robin, as they fly from tree to tree; and the tree-creeper, and the whole fauvet genus, 

 while doing the same, commencing a few seconds before they settle, and repeating the strain con- 

 tinuously after they have alighted: the cuckoo, also, occasionally repeats its well-known note 

 while upon the wing. ED. 



