﻿170 OX THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



within their reach ; while in one or two of the hang- 

 nests (Icterince) it is used, probably, as a recreation, since 

 these birds feed only upon fruit and insects. One of 

 the Brazilian water-chats (Fluvicola) is also stated to 

 possess the same faculty. But setting these, and a few 

 other isolated exceptions aside, we shall find that, out of 

 twenty-five families of birds composing the order of the 

 perchers, five only may be said to enjoy the faculty of 

 melodious singing to any great extent ; three of these 

 are in the tribe of Bentirostres, and consist of the 

 thrushes (Merulidce), warblers (Sylviadce), and such 

 part of the chatterers (Ampelidce) as compose the 

 genera Vireo and Pachycephala. The remaining two 

 are the finches (FringiUidtf), and the starling (Stur- 

 nidcc), in the adjacent circle of the conirostral tribe 

 (Conirostres). Both series, however, are conterminous, 

 for they follow each other without the intervention 

 of any other family : thus showing, that however par- 

 tially nature has distributed this gift, she has acted with 

 all the regularity of system in its allotment. The in- 

 stances just before cited of the swallow and the wren, 

 neither of which birds are within the limits alluded to, 

 does not invalidate the general force of this rule, but 

 must be rather looked upon, like that of the musical 

 falcon, as resemblances of analogy, rather than as 

 marked deviations from a general law. 



(145.) Of the remaining families of perching birds 

 it may be more correctly said that their voice is re- 

 stricted to the use of language, or in other words, is 

 employed only to express their wants or their desires. 

 The crow does not sing, but every field naturalist must 

 have remarked how much its caws are varied when the 

 bird is engaged in different occupations : this is par- 

 ticularly observable during their flight, when two or 

 three companies meet in the air, and when the whole are 

 obviously reconnoitering the fields below them, and 

 consulting where they should next alight. To the 

 ordinary pedestrian, all these curious, if not interesting, 

 traits are lost ; but we know not a more agreeable rest, 



