150 SYLVIINJE. REGULUS. 



buted, but nowhere very common, and much less numerous 

 than the last species. It frequents thickets, hedges, and gar- 

 dens, is extremely active, often pursues insects on wing, has 

 a rapid flight, and a shrill, rather weak song, short, but plea- 

 santly modulated. The nest is of an elliptical form, with the 

 aperture near the top, and lined with feathers. The eggs, five 

 or six, are seven-twelfths long, five and a half twelfths in 

 breadth, white, with purplish-red spots. 



Chip-chop. Hay Bird. Least Willow-wren. 



Sylvia Hippolais, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 507. Sylvia rufa, 

 Temm. Man. d'Ornith. i. 225. Phyllopneuste Hippolais, 

 Short-winged Wood-wren, or Chiff-chaff, MacGillivray, Brit. 

 Birds, ii. 379. 



GENUS XL VII. REGULUS. KINGLET. 



Bill rather short, straight, very slender, rather broader than 

 high at the base, compressed toward the end, acute ; upper man- 

 dible with the ridge rather sharp, the edges slightly inflect- 

 ed toward the end, the notches wanting, the tip acute. Mouth 

 narrow ; tongue sagittate, slender, thin, concave above, 

 slightly bristled at the tip ; oesophagus narrow ; stomach el- 

 liptical, compressed, its muscular coat thick, the epithelium 

 dense and rugous ; intestine short and of moderate width. 

 Nostrils linear-oblong, covered by a single, delicate, oblong 

 feather. Eyes of moderate size. Aperture of ear large, 

 roundish. Head oblong, large ; neck short ; body moderate. 

 Legs rather long ; tarsus longer than the middle toe, slender, 

 compressed anteriorly with a long slender plate and three 

 scutella ; toes rather large, the first stronger and almost equal 

 in length to the third, the second and fourth nearly equal, the 

 third and fourth united at the base ; claws long, arched, ex- 

 tremely compressed, laterally grooved, acute. Plumage ex- 

 tremely soft and blended, almost downy ; wings of ordinary 

 length, broad, rounded, of eighteen quills, the first not half 

 the length of the second, the fourth longest ; tail of moderate 

 length, narrow, arched at the base, slightly emarginate. 



The Kinglets, which are the smallest birds of the family, 

 inhabit the woods and thickets of the colder and temperate 

 regions of both continents. They generally move in bands 

 among the branches, searching assiduously for insects and 



