REDBREAST. 
55 
vocalists sing during the night, others only in the day, each, 
in its appointed time, joining in the unceasing chorus of 
Nature ; and when the greater number leave our climate 
in autumn, to seek a milder temperature, a few remain to 
cheer our leafless gardens. To the lover of nature all these 
changes are endless sources of the purest pleasure, and sub¬ 
jects of the most delightful investigation, to which the diligent 
seeker of worldly pleasure can find no equivalent. 
The Sj/lviadcE have many generic characters in common 
in their external formation ; but, on account of slight vari¬ 
ations in form, and differences of habits and manners, this 
large family is by most systematists subdivided into several 
sections, which will be mentioned in their order. The 
generic characters usually assigned to the Sylviad(E are as 
follows:—Bill straight, slender, and almost round, higher 
at the base than broad : nostrils placed near the base of 
the bill, oval, and partly closed by a membrane. Tarsi 
usually longer than the middle toe ; the outer and middle 
toes connected : the claw of the hinder much arched, and 
shorter than the toe. Wings of middle size ; the first quill- 
feather short or wanting, the second a very little shorter than 
the third. They bear much resemblance to the thrushes, 
except in size. The birds of this family are lively and 
nimble, but unsociable, even among themselves. The male 
birds are possessed of the power of singing, in a manner 
more or less agreeable. Their food consists of insects and 
their larvse, berries, and worms. They breed in woods and 
forests, on or near the ground, in thickets and reeds, in holes 
of trees or rocks : they have one brood in the year, at most 
two. They deposit from five to seven eggs, which are 
hatched in a fortnight. The young desert the nest early, 
and even before they can fly. In the Redbreast, genus 
Erilhaca of Swainson, the bill is rather strong, furnished 
with a few bristly hairs at the corners of the gape : the 
