194 BEEMTTDA. 



strains full of soft warbling music. It is the music 

 of the red bird that makes our sunny glades and 

 shady groves eminently melodious by day, sustaining 

 almost the whole burden himself. On account of 

 the beauty of its plumage and notes, it is often 

 reared in cages. 

 , Among the other native birds we may enumerate 

 the following: viz. the common blue bird {Sylvia 

 ; stalls) resembles very much in its manners and 

 , habits the Saxicola ruhicola, or robin redbreast of 

 j Europe. It is very useful in destroying multitudes 

 ^ of noxious insects. We have a species of merle, 

 the black merle, or blackbird, commonly called cat- 

 bird, also improperly called mocking-bird {Turdus 

 merula), a mistrustful species. Its plumage is 

 entirely black. It inhabits gardens and sylvan dis- 

 tricts, and is very frugivorous, and is remarkable, 

 particularly, for the singularity of its note, which 

 consists of a few harmonious sounds. It is a loud 

 but monotonous songster, heard throughout the year. 

 The ground dove {Columba passerina) is the smallest 

 and only American species peculiar to Bermuda. It 

 has a pretty cooing note, resembling that of the ring- 

 dove. Lastly, the tropic-bird, or longtail (Phwton 

 Athenus), belongs to a species which fly very far 

 from land, on the high seas ; and as they rarely quit 



