ORDER PASSERES. 545 



produced this singular noise, which he heard every morning 

 and evening around him. He httle thought that this Hving 

 tocsin was a small bird, which he was in the habit of constantly 

 meeting in these immense sohtudes, and which furnished one 

 of the ordinary dishes of his table. He was the first who 

 made known this species to Buffon, who preserved the name 

 given it by M. Vieillot, viz., B^froi. 



Of the habits of the red-bellied ant-eater we have no infor- 

 mation whatever, and its specific characters are sufficiently 

 noticed in the text. 



Our figure of the grallina is from the Paris Museum, where 

 the specimen has been treated by M. Vieillot as a new genus 

 from Australia. It is entirely black and white, but of its 

 habits and manners there is nothing known. 



The CiNCLE, in consequence of its peculiar habits, has been 

 classed among the grallee, in the genus tringa, but its confor- 

 mation proves it to belong to this division. It is a solitary 

 and silent bird, remaining constantly near fountains and hmpid 

 streams, whose waters roll over gravel beds in lofty mountains. 

 It is found in Spain, Sardinia, France, and even to the most 

 northern parts of Europe, where it remains all the winter, near 

 water-falls and rapid fountains, whose waters are not frozen. 

 Sometimes it walks slowly, sometimes it is seen resting on the 

 pebbles, between which the rivulets wind. When it flies, it is 

 in a right line, shaving the ground closely, and uttering a little 

 cry like the king-fisher. Aquatic insects constituting its chief 

 nutriment, it proceeds to seek them even in the bed of the 

 stream, following its declivity, and continuing its progress even 

 when the depth of the water forces it to submerge. It tra- 

 verses the bottom with the head upright, without appearing to 

 have changed its element. It walks there in all directions with 

 the same facility as on land, only M. Hebert has remarked, 

 that the moment the water passed its knees, it suffered its 

 wings to fall, agitating them a little. The object of this move- 

 ment may, perhaps, be for the purpose of causing a stratum 



^y // ^''^ 



