LECTURE VI. 199 



The remaining genera of the Order Passeres, 

 consist of the more Slender-billed small birds, or 

 such as, from the structure of their beaks, are 

 more calculated for feeding on the smaller and 

 softer insects than on grain. Linncjeus ranges the 

 major part of these birds under a vast genus called 

 Motacilla or Warbler, the characters of which are 

 a weak, slender bill, slightly notched at the tip : 

 the tongue either divided or jagged at the tip, and 

 the legs slender. These birds live principally on 

 the smaller kind of insects and worms. 



Among the principal species is the Nightingale, 

 which is the M. Luscinia of Linnasus, a native of 

 most parts of Europe and Asia, and of a migra- 

 tory nature. In our own country it arrives, as is 

 well known, about the beginning of April, and 

 leaves us in the month of August. 



" To every person, (says the Count de Buffon,) 

 whose ear is not totally insensible to melody, the 

 name of the Nightingale must recal the charms 

 of those soft evenings in spring, when the air is 

 still and serene, and all nature seems to listen to 

 the songster of the grove. Other birds, the larks, 

 the canaries, the chaffinches, the petty-chaps, the 

 linnets, the goldfinches, the blackbirds, the Ame- 



