THE WARBLERS. 323 



feed their young with larvae, and the eggs of insects; 

 and thus greatly diminish the numbers ; as while the 

 young are fed with the young insects, the old prey 

 upon them in their perfect or imago state, and pick 

 them up indiscriminately upon the wing, on the leaves 

 of plants, or on the ground ; but none of them beat 

 the bark as is done by the woodpeckers and the 

 titmice. Their slender bills, slightly awl-shaped, and 

 having the top of the upper mandible a little curved 

 downward at the tip, does not adapt them for that 

 operation ; neither are their feet, though well con- 

 structed for perching, adapted for sustaining them 

 against the bark of a tree in an upright position. The 

 wings are, in general, short and rounded, a form which 

 renders them the least liable to be injured by the sprays 

 or the reeds, through which they have to make their 

 way. When the warblers are singing, there is ge- 

 nerally a motion of the head, as if they were " twist- 

 ing" out the notes ; and there is also a jerking motion 

 of the tail, though not so remarkable as in the wagtail. 

 One obvious natural division of the summer birds is 

 Aquatic warblers, and Sylvan warblers. 



Aquatic warblers, there are only three in this country, 

 and they are confined to the reedy and sedgy banks 

 of rivers and marshes in England. We have heard it 

 alleged, indeed, that one has been seen among the bushes 

 on the estuary of the Tay in Scotland ; it may be, for 

 Selby met with the same species in Northumberland, 

 where the climate is at least not better than in the 

 place alluded to. These Aquatic migrants are the 

 Grasshopper Warbler, (sylvia locustella,) the cry of 

 which can hardly be distinguished from that of the 



