220 FLY-CATCHER. NIGHTINGALE. 



THE FLY-CATCHER. 



This is a very numerous genus ; but it will be sufficient 

 here to describe only one species, the spotted fly-catcher, 

 which will convey a tolerable idea of the whole family. 

 This bird is little more than five inches long ; the head 

 is large, and of a brownish hue, obscurely spotted with 

 black ; the back is of a mouse-colour ; the wings and tail 

 are dusky, and the breast and belly white. It is a bird of 

 passage, appearing in Britain (where it breeds) in the 

 spring, and departing from our shores in September. It 

 builds its nest against any part of a tree that will support 

 it, and is found to return almost invariably to the same 

 place in successive years. 



,The fly-catcher 4 feeds on inserts, which it collects on 

 |ie wing. When the young can fly, the old ones with- 



aw with them into thick woods, where they frolic among 

 the top branches ; dropping almost perpendicularly on the 

 flies that sport beneath, and rising again in the same 

 direction. 



THE NIGHTINGALE. 



The nightingale has been so long celebrated for the de- 

 lightful melody with which it charms the ear, that its very 

 name seems to embellish poetical description, and to con- 

 vey to the mind a sort of pleasure which words cannot 

 easily depict. Almost every modern versifier mentions 

 it with rapture ; and the ancient bards, who so closely 

 painted from nature, have exerted themselves to fix its 

 reputation. 



But sweet as is the music of Philomel (its poetical name^ 

 she has little external beauty to attract the eye, and charms 

 most when unseen. The head and back are of a pale 

 tawny colour, dashed with olive ; the throat, breast, and 

 the upper part of the belly, are of a light glossy ash 

 colour ; and the lower part of the belly is almost white. 

 The exterior webs of the quill-feathers are of a reddisfc 



