78 Classification of Birds. 



in an eminent degree, as a solace to their mates during the tedious 

 course of incubation. All male birds, we believe, in addition to 

 what may be called their ordinary or constant notes, which may be 

 supposed analogous to speech, and which seem to direct and regulate 

 their general or ordinary movements, possess other intonations and 

 powers of voice, apparently given for special purposes, and which 

 are only called into action during a certain period of the year. In 

 the majority of the feathered race, these additional or temporary 

 powers of voice are limited in extent, and frequently confined to 

 one or two notes, and it is only in a few groups of the Insessores 

 that we find them developed in an extraordinary degree, or worthy 

 the name of song. But whatever be the extent of this power, 

 whether confined to a few monotonous notes, as in the Buntings, the 

 Titmice, and various others, or embracing the varied intonations, 

 as well as the sweetness and melody of the Nightingale, Mavis, 

 &c. ; in all the species it answers a similar end, and the utterance 

 is attended Avith a like effect, viz. the attraction of the opposite sex, 

 in order to insure the reproduction of the species. During the late 

 autumnal and early winter months, or from August to the begin- 

 ning of January, in most birds it is entirely lost, or if attempted by 

 song birds, is always imperfect in cadence and extent, and it is only 

 fully regained when the turn of the year again invigorates their 

 frame, and produces those remarkable changes in the constitution 

 which every practical ornithologist cannot fail to have observed. 

 In most if not all cases it is only regained by degrees. This is the 

 case with all our native birds, and we have known weeks to elapse 

 before a Chafiinch has been able to compass his short but sprightly 

 lay. Of nidification our author seems to have little practical know- 

 ledge, and his observations are mostly drawn from the writings and 

 descriptions of other authors. All the owls do not, as he says, " se- 

 lect a hole wherein to deposit their eggs, whether it be in a tree, or 

 in a building, or upon the ground," for the long-eared owl, Otus vul- 

 garis, almost invariably selects the deserted nest of the carrion crow, 

 and the short-eared owl, Oiiis brachyolos, deposits her eggs upon the 

 surface of the ground in wild moorland wastes. In speakingof pensile 

 nests, he mentions that of the Bearded Titmouse, Par. biarmicus, as 

 likely to exhibit a modification or approach to this form ; but adds, 

 " that no British author has yet described it." Had he turned to the 

 last edition of Selby's Illustrations of British Ornithology, he would 

 have found a note in which the site and structure of the nest is de- 

 scribed ; and which prove that it belongs to the ordinary form. 

 With the contents of the next chapter, which treats of Ornitholo- 



