SINGING BIRDS. 71 



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

 or before midsummer : 



17. Middle willow- 1 Regulus non crista-f Middle of June; begins 



wren, ) tus. \ in April. 



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



19. Chaffinch, Fringitta. 



20. Nightingale. Luscinia. 



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

 spring : 



'January the 2d, 1 770, in 

 January. Is called in 

 Hampshire and Sus- 

 sex the storm-cock, 



21. Miesel-bird, Turdus viscivorus. { because its song is 



supposed to forebode 

 windy wet weather ; 

 it is the largest singing 

 bird we have. * 



oo ro4. 4-' 4- ~ fl n Feb. March, April : 



&. ijrreat titmouse, I **, . . 77 ,. -s. 



I *' rm 9 l " a 9 o - "S re-assumes for a short 



t time in September. 



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

 hardly to be called singing birds : 



RAII NOMINA. 



23. Golden -crowned) 

 wren, 



fits note as minute as its 

 D 7 ... 1 person: frequents tops of 



Regulus cnstatus. -j & gll oifc ^ ? 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. 



