266 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



of the young in his beak, which is dropped at a dis- 

 tance from the nest*." 



Plausible as this reasoning- seerns to be, it will not 

 be difficult to adduce numerous facts with which it 

 will not accord. It is not indeed a correct statement 

 of the fact, to say that birds sing only during the 

 seasons of pairing and breeding, as Buffon arid 

 Montagu assume. This is the case with the greater 

 number of the seed-eating song-birds, both wild and 

 tame; but not with the soft-billed birds. We have 

 not many of these resident with us during winter, the 

 greater number migrating to more southern latitudes, 

 where they can find an abundant supply of insects 

 and fruits; but all of those which do winter with us 

 continue more or less in song after having moulted. 

 The most conspicuous and best known of these 

 autumnal and winter song-birds is the red-breast. 

 Both Montagu and White are in error when they say 

 this bird "sings throughout the winter except in 

 severe weather" or "during frost"; for though con- 

 tinued frost or snow, by depriving it of a due supply 

 of food, may render it silent, we can answer for the 

 fact of having, not once, but frequently, heard the 

 red- breast singing as merrily during sharp frost, as in 

 the heyday of summer or in the mild sunshine of 

 autumn. A much smaller and more delicate bird, 

 the wren (Anorthura communis), also sings in all 

 weathers during the autumn and winter, as well as 

 the little dunnock (Accentor modular is) ; and they are 

 frequently accompanied by the thrush and the black- 

 bird. Though the latter do not sing so long and 

 so frequently as in summer, this appears to be more 

 on account of the physical languor arising from a 

 precarious supply of food than from its not being the 

 pairing season. That what has been stated is not 

 peculiar to the milder weather of the southern coun- 

 * Ornithological Diet., Intr, 1st ed,; p. 476, 2d ed, 



