556 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



borhood of man. Their song is a quick, cheerful chirruping warble, con- 

 stantly repeated. 



The thrushes and their relatives are eight hundred strong, and among 

 them come some of the best of song-birds. Best known of all is the 

 familiar robin, which comes each spring to build its nest of mud about our 

 dwellings, to eat our berries and our cherries, and to do far more good 

 than evil in destroying insects and worms by the thousand. Our robin is 

 .a fine singer, but lie is far excelled in this line by his cousin, the wood- 

 thrush. A quiet, retiring bird is this last. It has none of the familiarity 

 of the redbreast ; it cares nothing for the haunts of men, except to keep 

 away from them ; it loves rather the deep woods, and there, and there 

 only, is its song heard. Early morn and early twilight are the times for 

 the concerts ; and such concerts — who can describe them ? It is largely 

 a concert of the flute ; there is a tinkling little warble, long liquid notes, 

 trills, and double-tonguing ; now one bird taking it, and then his rival just 

 beyond those bushes tries his throat. The whole is beautiful, though of a 

 melancholy character. 



Even more celebrated as songsters are the European nightingales. 

 Would you know how they sing, or better, how they ought to sing ? Then 

 turn to the poets. Learn there that these birds sing only at night ; that 

 this peculiar melancholy sweetness, of the song is caused by the bird 

 leaning against a thorn ; and then turn to nature and learn that all this 

 is false. The bird needs not the inspiration derived from pain to give 

 voice to its feelings ; it can and does sing by day. It may be that it is 



overpraised, and yet the universal tes- 

 timony of all — poets and naturalists 

 — is that its song is unrivalled by any 

 of the feathered choristers. 



Relatives of the thrushes are the 

 warblers of Europe, — how many there 

 are only the ornithologist knows. They 

 are far different birds from our war- 

 blers, and are much nearer our kinglets, 

 one of which is figured here. These, 

 however, must be dismissed, for there 

 is another form, far more interesting, 

 demanding attention. 



This is the celebrated tailor-bird of 

 India and Burma, which sews together the leaves of trees to form a frame- 

 work, or casing, for its nest. These birds select three or four leaves growing 

 near each other, and proceed to sew their edges together so that a purse- 



Fig. 458. — Golden-crested kinglet (Rer/ulus 

 satrapa). 



