234 
ZOOLOGY. 
martin, destroys a thousand noxious insects for every bee 
it eats. The lyre-bird (Fig. 272) is also a memoer of this 
group. This bird, with tail feathers so strikingly devel- 
oped as to resemble in outline a lyre, is so peculiar among 
higher Passerine birds that it has been proposed to sep- 
arate it, with certain probable allies, from all the rest. 
The Oscines are represented by a host of species. These 
birds stand at the head of their class; and as they are 
mostly of small size, it may be said of them that they excel 
in quality, not quantity, being highly wrought, exquisite 
winged gems; most of them sing. Among the most nota- 
ble are the jays, including the magpie of the Eocky Moun- 
tains (Fig. 273), the crow, and blackbird, so useful a bird. 
Fig. 275.— Butcher-bird. 
notwithstanding its mischievous propensities. The birds 
of paradise (Fig. 274, Paradisea rubra) are allied in their 
size and habits to crows, starlings, and blackbirds, and are 
noted for their beautiful feathers forming plumes, trains, 
fans, or shields, the middle feathers of the tail often being 
lengthened inte wires, twisted into fantastic shapes, or 
adorned with the most brilliant metallic tints. They in- 
habit New Guinea and the neighboring islands. Succeed- 
ing the crows^ etc., are the oriole, whose hanging nest, 
brilliant colors., and liyely song render it ono of our most 
interesting birds; and the reed-bird of the South, or bobo- 
link, as it is called in the North, which wakes up the 
meadows with his lively notes. The finches with their 
conical beaks are succeeded, in the ascending series, by the 
