PASSERINE. 127 



MOTACILLA, Linnaeus. 



The warblers form an excessively numerous family, known by the beak, 

 which is straight, slender, and similar to a bodkin. 

 When slightly depressed at base, it approaches that of 

 the fly-catchers ; when compressed, and its point is 

 curved a little, it leads to the straight beaked shrikes. 



CURRUCA, Bechstein. 



A straight beak, slender throughout, slightly compressed before ; the upper 

 mandible a little curved near the point. The most celebrated of this sub- 

 genus is 



Mot. luscinja, Lin. (The Nightingale.) A reddish brown above ; whitish 

 grey beneath; the tail somewhat redder. Everyone knows this songster of 

 the night, and the varied melody with which it fills the woods. It builds on 

 trees, and does not begin to sing until the young ones are hatched. The male, 

 then, as well as the female, is occupied in providing them with food. 



The other subgenera are Saxicola (the Wheat-ear) ; Sylvia (the Blue-Bird) ; 

 Regulus; Troglodytes (Wrens ;) Motacilla (the Wag-tails) ; Anihus (Meadow 

 Larks). 



We will terminate the family of the Dentirostres with some birds dis- 

 tinguished from all preceding ones by their two external toes, which are 

 united at the base for about a third of their length, a circumstance which 

 approximates them to the family of the Syndactyli. 



PIPRA, Linnaeus. 



The manakins have a compressed beak, higher than it is broad, and emar- 

 ginated ; large nasal fossae. Their feet and tail are short ; 

 the general proportions of their form have long caused 

 them to be considered as very similar to the titmouse. At 

 their head, but in a separate group, should be placed 



RUPICOLA, Brisson. 



The rock manakins or cocks of the rock, which are large birds, and have a 

 double vertical crest on the head, formed of feathers arranged like a fan The 

 adult males of the two American species, Pipra rupicola, and Pip. Peruviana, 

 are of a most splendid orange colour : the young of an obscure brown. They 

 live on fruit, scratch the ground like the common hen, and construct their nests 

 with pieces of dry wood, in the depths of rocky caverns. The female lays two 

 eggs. 



EURYLAIMUS, Horsjield. 



Toes similar to those of the manakins and the rock manakins ; but the beak, 

 as strong as that of the tyrants, is enormously broad and depressed, the base 



