346 SUMMER. 



to twig, and partially procure food. When fully fledged, 

 the male is said to lead them out to where they can 

 find food for themselves. 



The nightingale is the largest of the warblers, being 

 seven inches in length, between ten and eleven in the 

 extent of the wings, and weighing about three-quarters 

 of an ounce. Its colours are plain and simple, and 

 without any decided markings. The upper part is deep 

 brown, with a shade of yellow ; the sides of the neck, 

 the breast, and the flanks grey ; the throat and belly 

 white; and the rump and tail pale brown, with a shade 

 of orange. The bird, in fact, is coloured a good deal 

 like the nest and those shaded and grassless places in 

 which it is constructed, and that no doubt is one of the 

 means of protection. 



The second class of the little birds that come to rear 

 their broods with us, and aid the residents in clearing 

 our vegetation of insects, are the wagtails. They get 

 that name from the constant jerking motion of their 

 tails ; and as very many of the singing birds have the 

 same habit, though in a less conspicuous degree, Lin- 

 nseus and his immediate followers, made it the cha- 

 racteristic of a genus in which they included all the 

 warblers, the wrens, the chats, and the hedge sparrow, 

 as well as the wagtails properly so called ; though the 

 localities and general habits of the birds form much 

 more important distinctions than the mere motion or 

 rest of their tails. The celebrity which that eminent 

 Swede derived from artificial system-making was, 

 however, of great use in natural history. The emula- 

 tion of others led them also to make systems ; before 

 they could do that they were obliged to examine and 



