232 



CHAPTER XI. 



Subulirostres ; awl- shaped Bills. Manakins; curious Nests of. 

 Tomtits. Wagtails. Redstarts. Robins, &c. Migration of 

 this Tribe. Nightingales. Whether they return to same 

 Nests. Ear for Music. Night Singing- birds. Planirostres ; 

 flatbilled. Swallow Tribe. Whether occasionally Dormant ; 

 instances of. Migration of. Insects, number devoured by 

 Swallows. Spiders, high flights of. Curious Nests of Swal- 

 lows. Courage of. 



Table XI. Order 2. PASSEKINE. 



OF the four genera included in this tribe, three are common 

 in England, but the fourth, that of the Pipras or Mana- 

 kins, is entirely foreign, comprising a number of little birds 

 of beautiful plumage. Some of these species are exceptions 

 to the general rule of classification, as the upper mandible, on 

 examination, will be found, as in the Manakins, notched ; in 

 other respects, the beak has a tolerably marked character, 

 being short and usually feeble and flexible ; and, as the word 

 subulirostrum implies, awl-shaped, from a Latin word, subula, 

 signifying an awl, and rostrum, a beak. 



Under the second genus, Parus, are comprehended the 

 various species of Titmouse. Under the third, Motacilla, 

 the Wagtails, Wrens, Robins, and a large family of singing- 

 birds, usually separated from the rest, under the term Sylvias 

 or Warblers ; at the head of which stands- the Nightingale. 

 Under the fourth, the Alaudce, or Larks. The Tomtits are 

 familiar to everybody ; they might be called our minor Jack- 

 daws, so pert and bustling, never at rest, always prying 

 about, peering into every little chink and cranny, and, even 

 in the breeding season, when most birds retire to more un- 

 frequented haunts, still lurking about our homesteads, and 

 placing their nests in the oddest and sometimes most con- 

 spicuous situations. Thus, a pair of Titmice (Parus cceru- 

 leus), built their nest in the upper part of an old pump, 



