INTRODUCTION. 13 



pettychaps, or lesser fauvette, is a mocking-bird. 

 Some amateurs even keep in their a^daries the 

 whin-chat, the stone-chat, and the white-rump ; 

 Tliough well acquainted with these birds, as far 

 as we know, they have no song, only a single note, 

 two or three times repeated ; we have therefore 

 not given them a place in this work. One of the 

 birds we have given as a distinct species, and an 

 excellent songster, (we mean the solitary thrush,) 

 is said to be the young of the stare or starling ; 

 but the reasons ^^'hy we think it a distinct species 

 are these : — it is said to haA e all the appearance 

 of a matured bii'd in full adult feather — its plu- 

 mage is lighter, and more of a brown colour than 

 that of the young starling, and bird-fanciers know 

 it has a most excellent natural song. Now, this 

 last is not the case with either young or old star- 

 lings ; besides, young starlings, at least those we 

 have had, are of a dull, dingy black, somewhat like 

 the young of the black and ring ouzels, — they do 

 not seem matured — ^their feathers hang loose about 

 them — they have a bunched appearance — and pos- 

 sess all the characteristics by which young birds 

 are generally distinguished. 



We may here notice, that the linnet, grey lin- 

 net, brown linnet, red-breasted linnet, and greater 



