BRITISH 



BIRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND. 



423 



a bird of the same species is remarked, which, as I have been informed, 

 was sent from Senegal : but this individual has a very remarkable 

 peculiarity, one of its tail-quills is double, at least a beardless stem, 

 which is absolutely of the same dimension as that of the feather to 

 which it is attached at its base throughout its full length, arises from 

 the same quill-barrel; in other respects there is nothing which distin- 

 guishes it from the bird which I observed in the Namaquas ; and as 

 for the bare stem, which I have just mentioned, it must certainly be 

 looked upon as an accidental variety, a mere whim of nature, occasioned 

 by a superabundance of matter, which produced a double plume, but 

 nevertheless without plumelets. Might not this circumstance give rise 

 to the idea, that the matter which forms the barbs of feathers is of a 

 different nature from that which produces the stem ? Besides it is not 

 uncommon to observe double feathers, which are completely formed, 

 rising out of the same quill-barrel. 



A GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE BRITISH WARBLERS, 

 (Sylviance) AND BIRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND, (Rubeculince) 

 WITH VARIOUS REMARKS. 



BY EDWARD BLYTH. 



In my paper on the nightingale (p. 196,) it was remarked, that 

 the usual classification of this noted songster amongst the warblers, 

 (Sylviafice,) is by no means so natural, and agreeable to the general 

 conformation and habits of the bird, as could be wished ; and I there 

 pointed out a number of little dissimilarities, of which, each, in itself, 

 might probably be thought trivial, and of little consequence, but which 

 considered altogether, and conjointly, seem to intimate that the situa- 

 tion which the nightingale has hitherto held in systematic arrangement 

 might, in all probability, be somewhat ameliorated. It is impossible 

 to overlook the great general resemblance which the nightingale bears 

 to the birds of the redstart genus, (Phcenicura of authors ;) in its form, 

 its manners, its actions, in many of its habits, in the structure of its 

 nest, and in the mottled plumage of the young birds, it approximates 

 closely to the redstart, and the robin-redbreast, and in all these parti- 

 culars it differs as obviously from the group in which it has been 

 hitherto arranged. The genus Phcenicura, however, has been placed 



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