426 



BRITISH ETRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND. 



their adventurous and enthusiastic survivor. The time, perhaps, is not 

 far distant when Australia will produce her Wilson, when the orni- 

 thology of that vast distant continent will be explored, and published 

 to the world, and become as familiar to the European naturalist as 

 that of North America has already been rendered ; when other lands 

 will send forth their Audubons and Le Vaillants into distant countries, 

 and the wonders of creation in every realm be revealed, and made 

 known to all who take pleasure in their contemplation. 



In the minor group or subdivision, Sylviancr, will also rank the 

 polyglot, or arbour bird, (Horticola polyglotta ; Sylvia hippola'is of 

 Bechstein and Temminck, S. polyglotta of Vieillot and Ranzani,) a 

 species not uncommon in many parts of Europe, and which, I am 

 inclined to suspect, will be found ere long to straggle occasionally to 

 the south of England. Splendid, however, as the music of this interest- 

 ing species is described to be, it might possibly for a long time pass 

 unnoticed by people in general, as we daily see to be the case with 

 the blackcap, and the garden -warbler, two of our very finest native 

 songsters ; but the " rich intonation, and multitudinous variety of its 

 notes," must, I should imagine, at once excite the attention of any 

 observer of nature, and lead direct to its discovery, should it chance 

 ever to make its appearance in any part of Britain, where natural 

 history is at all attended to. I shall make further mention of this 

 bird when I come to the consideration of the generic division Sylvia, 

 with one species of which, the chiff-chaff, (S. loquax, Herbert,) it has 

 been so strangely and unaccountably confounded. 



It is remarked in the paper on the nightingale, by M. Wichterich, 

 of Bonn (page 225), that "there are two varieties of the nightingale, 

 one which sings both in the night and in the day, and pne which sings 

 in the day only. I have found only one that sung in the night out of 

 twenty or thirty caged nightingales. The night singers are considerably 

 larger and darker coloured, that is, not so rusty red as the day singers, 

 and they are, according to M. Bechstein, more partial to high ground, 

 while the day singers frequent valleys and hollow ways," &c. Since 

 reading the above, I have paid particular attention to the nightingales 

 which inhabit this district, and am, as yet, by no means satisfied upon 

 the subject. The majority of them, certainly, do not appear to sing in 

 the night ; and in some places where, during the day, the air literally 

 resounds with their melody, scarce an individual is to be heard at night 

 to break the universal silence which, at that time, commonly prevails. 

 I have observed, however, the night singers to haunt low damp situa- 



