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BRITISH BIRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND. 



The wood-wren, or shivering pettychaps, (6\ sibilatrix) ; very easily 

 distinguishable from the others by its broad, well defined, yeilow eye 

 streak, by the brighter green of the upper parts, and by the pure silvery 

 white of the belly and under tail-coverts, which latter in the other 

 species are tinged with yellow. The gape of its mouth is wider, and 

 the tibia bone of the leg shorter than in the others ; its attitudes are, 

 in general, more crouching, and its wings are longer, extending, when 

 closed, more than half way down the tail. It chiefly frequents oak and 

 beech woods, and is never heard but in the vicinity of high trees, where 

 it may be recognised easily by its remarkable shivering note, resembling 

 twit, twit, twit, tit, tit, tit, tit, ti-ti-ti-i-i-i, beginning slow, but gra- 

 dually becoming quicker and quicker, until it dies away in a kind of 

 thrill. During the utterance of this it shivers its wings in a remark- 

 able manner. 



The willow- wren, or garden pettychaps, (S. melodia). This is much 

 the most abundant of the genus, arriving in this country early in the 

 month of April, (the wood-wren does not make its appearance till the 

 very end of that month), and haunting alike all situations, the fields 

 and the woods, the road-side, the gardens and the commons. It is 

 eminently distinguished from its congeners, by its charming and truly 

 melodious song, consisting generally of ten or twelve extremely sweet 

 and musical notes, being a repetition of the sound heu-ee, delightfully 

 modulated, each succeeding note being uttered a little deeper than the 

 preceding, like running down the notes of a gamut, but laying a greater 

 stress on the concluding three or four ; or, to express it still more mi- 

 nutely, the stress in the first notes is placed more on the latter syllable 

 ee, becoming gradually greater upon lieu. These notes, (or rather this 

 repetition of one note), though they constitute the whole extent of the 

 willow-wren's song, are nevertheless most pleasingly varied, being 

 sometimes extremely loud, at other times uttered in a very soft and 

 low tone ; then, perhaps, they are delivered in a different key, or with 

 a few additional notes ; sometimes two syllables are distinctly articu- 

 lated, at other times only one ; in short, this little bird, in my opinion, 

 is one of the most pleasing songsters we possess ; and, as in the spring 

 it is one of the first of the migratory birds to greet us with its melody, 

 so also, in the autumn, it is generally the very first to resume its song, 

 having often finished its moult by the first week in July. It is of 

 about the same size as the wood- wren, or perhaps a trifle smaller ; the 

 whole plumage of the upper parts is darker, inclining more to olive ; 

 the eye-streak, though tolerably well defined, is of a more dingy colour, 

 and not so broad and conspicuous as in the wood-wren ; the under 



