XV. 



THE SINGINQ BIRDS AND THEIR SONGS. 



The singing birds are universally regarded as the 

 most interesting part of animated creation; and they 

 are the only creatures, excepting a few of the insect 

 tribe, that can be said to sing. Their voices are asso- 

 ciated in our minds with all the beautiful scenes of na- 

 ture and with the fairest seasons of the year. There is 

 no man, however insensible he may be to the sound of 

 musical instruments, who is not delighted with the 

 warbling of birds, who speak the language of nature 

 and of love. The birds of temperate climates are be- 

 lieved to be better singers than those species that in- 

 habit the tropics. This opinion, generally correct, has 

 probably arisen partly from the fact that a large propor- 

 tion of the birds that winter in the tropica, belong to 

 the temperate latitudes, and that they are silent during 

 this period, because it is not their breeding season. 

 They sing only in summer, when they return to their 

 native climes to rear their young. The tropics are al- 

 ways full of these sojourners, because there is winter at 

 all times, either north or south of th«m. 



Singing birds are found in the greatest numbers on 

 cultivated, or half cultivated lands, or in woods in the 

 10* 



