PASSERINE. 135 



ers which compose it, viz. the twelve common ones with very fine and widely 

 separated barbs; two more in the middle only one side of which is furnished 

 with tliickly set barbs, and two external ones curved into the figiu-e of an S, 

 or like tlie arms of a lyre, whose internal barbs, large and thickly set, form 

 a kind of broad riband, while those tliat are external are very short, becom- 

 ing longer only near the tip. Tlie female has only twelve ordinary quills. 



The singular species, Maenura lyra, inhabits the rocky districts of New 

 Holland; its size is somewhat less than that of the Pheasant. 



MoTACiLLA, Lin. 

 The Warblers form an excessively numerous family, known by the beak, 

 which is straight, slender, and similar to a bodkin. When slightly depress- 

 ed at base, it approaches that of the Flycatchers; when compressed, and its 

 point is curved a little, it leads to the straight beaked Shrikes. 



CuRRucA, Eechst. 



A straight beak, slender throughout, slightly compressed before; the up- 

 per mandible a little ciu-ved near the point. The most celebrated of this 

 subgenus is 



Mot. luscinia, L. (The Nightingale.) A reddish brown above; whitish 

 grey beneath; the tail somewhat redder. Every one knows this songster of 

 the night, and the varied melody with which it fills the woods. It builds 

 on trees, and does not begin to sing until the young ones are hatched. The 

 male, then, as well as the female, is occupied in providing them with food. 



The other subgenera are Saxicola (the Wheat-ear) ; Sylvia (our Blue-Bird); 

 Regulus; Troghdytea (Wrens); Motacilla (the Wag-tails); Jlnthus (Meadow- 

 Larks). 



We will terminate this family of the Dentirostres with some birds 

 distinguished from all preceding ones by their two external toes, 

 which are united at base for about a third of their length, a circum- 

 stance whch approximates them to the family of the Syndactyli. 



PiPRA, Lin. 



The Manakins have a compressed beak, higher than it is broad, and emar- 

 ginated; large nasal fossje . Their feet and tail are short; the general propor- 

 tions of their form have long caused them to be considered as very similar 

 to the Titmouse. At their head, but in a separate group, should be placed 



RupicoLA, Briss. 

 The Rock Manakins, or Cocks of the Rock, which are large birds, and have 

 a double vertical crest on the head, formed of feathers aiTanged like a fan. 

 The adult males of the two American species, Pipra rupicola, and Pip. 

 peruviana, are of a most splendid orange colour; the young of an obscure 

 brown. They live on fhiit, scratch the ground like the common Hen, and 



