SINGING BIRDS. 71 



Birds that cease to be in full song, and are usually silent at 

 or before midsummer : 



17. Middle willow-") Regulus non crista- f Middle of June; begins 



wren, ) tus. \ in April. 



18. Redstart, Ruticilla. Ditto ; begins in May. 



.-., , T-, . . f Beginning of June ; sings 



19. Chaffinch, Fnngilla. j f in 8 Februar ^ ! 



~ 4 T . .. i -r ' f Middle of June; sings 



20. Nightingale. Luscima. | first in ApdL ' 



Birds that sing for a short time, and very early in the 

 spring ; 



"January the 2d, 1770, in 

 February. Is called in 

 Hampshire and Sus- 

 sex the storm-cock, 



21. Missel-bird, Turdus viscivorus. 



because its song 

 supposed to forebode 

 windy wet weather ; 

 is the largest singing 

 bird we have.* 



22. Great titmouse,! ,, . . f 1 * Feb " Mar f ' A P ril > 



> Jrringillago. < re-assumes for a short 



I time in September. 



. 



I time in September. 



Birds that have somewhat of a note or song, and yet are 

 hardly to be called singing birds : 



RAII NOMINA. 



/'Its note as minute as its 



23. Golden -crowned) D 7 ... 1 person; frequents tops of 



}^9^scnstatus. I tigh oaks and firs : the 

 V. smallest British bird. 



* Although our author has ranked this species amongst our singing 

 birds, much variety of opinion prevails, up to the present day, whether 

 or not it is a bird of song. Several articles, however, which have 

 recently appeared in the Magazine of Natural History, places this 

 beyond a doubt. The following are the facts recorded : One writer says, 

 vol. iii. p. 193, " The note resembles that of the blackbird more than the 

 common thrush, and is, I believe, generally mistaken for the former, but 

 it is much louder, and less mellow, and free from that warbling nature so 

 peculiar to the blackbird." Another correspondent, in Ayrshire, says, 

 " It often happens that the woods resound, far and near, with its powerful 

 melody, on a still day, or middle of winter, or early in the spring, when 

 no other songster is heard." Mr J. D. Marshall, of Belfast, an authority 

 which we highly respect, says, " This bird seems to have two kinds* of 

 song, one not unlike the notes of the blackbird, the other very sweet, 

 though in a much lower tone, and more nearly resembling those of the 

 common thrush. I have one which I reared from the nest ; and, having 

 been kept a year near a canary, it has, to a certain degree, acquired its 

 song, as, in several notes, it has imitated it almost to perfection."- ED. 



