1M 



BRITISH BIRDS OF THE 



ROBIN KIND. 



It will appear from the foregoing observations, that the general 

 similarity which, in a systematic arrangement, approximates these 

 various species together may be traced, not only in their mere external 

 form, as studied in museums, but also in a variety of minute and 

 collateral resemblances ; in their mode of nidifi cation, their manners, 

 their actions, even in their notes ; in short, in many of the most trivial 

 and minute particulars ; unimportant, perhaps, in themselves, con- 

 sidered singly and individually, but which all concentre and tend alike 

 to show that the arrangement which I have above proposed is not 

 founded merely upon a few arbitrary and artificial chararacters, like 

 the huge incongruous genera which some writers seem to prefer, but is 

 based likewise on a general consimilarity of habits, economy and mode 

 of life. In all the Rub ecu lince it may be observed, that the nest is 

 invariably placed either on the ground or in a hole ; never (as in most 

 of the warbler genera, Sylviance,) fixed among the twigs of a bush, or on 

 the forked branch of a tree, but always resting on a solid and substantial 

 basis. It is mostly of rather loose construction ; and the materials 

 and situation vary, in the several genera, according to the different 

 localities which they naturally inhabit. In all the species we may 

 observe a considerable resemblance in form and manners to the robin - 

 redbreast, the standard of the group ; a little modified, of course, in 

 the different genera, but in each adapted peculiarly to the particular 

 mode of life allotted to its several species. I might here add a variety 

 of little trivial particulars, as further instances of the resemblance 

 which may be traced throughout these various birds, but enough has 

 been already mentioned to show that the arrangement is quite natural. 

 The peculiar double note, however, which all the species utter when a 

 person is near their nest, is worthy of being noticed : this, in the 

 nightingale, may be expressed by htveep ; hweep, carre : in the red- 

 start, by hweet, tit tit tit ; hweet tit tit : in the robin, by a loud tit tit 

 tit, and now and then a long drawn plaintive note (between a 

 whistle and a hiss), which cannot be expressed in writing : the stone- 

 chat's note resembles hweet, jur, jur ; hweet, jur : the whinchat's is 

 ycer, tip ; yeer, tip, tip : and the wheatear also has a note analogous, 

 but which I cannot accurately express in writing, from mere memory. 

 The common grey fly-catcher (Muscicapa grisola) has likewise a note 

 of this kind, which may be tolerably expressed by ist, chit ; ist, chit, 

 chit. 



The general characters of the Sylviance, or warblers, are well known 

 to every student of natural history, and it would be consequently of 

 little use here to dilate much on their peculiarities. The known 



