106 
SYLVI ADAS. 
months, the ornithological character of our groves 
and forests, by their cheerful notes or more 
soothing melody, while they, at the same time, 
place an important check on the ravages of the 
various insects which are then bursting forth in 
great profusion. 
In Mr Swainsou’s arrangement of the Sylviadse, 
the following table will exhibit our British genera, 
and the numbers in each. 
SUB-FAMILIES. 
SaxicolifH*. PhtlomelmtP. Sylvia nr*. 
Haxicola 3. Fhirn'k'ura 3. Mellzophilua 1 
Krithaca 1. Philomela 1. Sylvia 3. 
Curruca 4. Qegulus 3. 
Parian (p. Motacillintr. 
Parua 7. Budytea 2. 
Accentor 2. Motaeilla 2. 
All thus 4. 
THE SAXICOLINiE, OR STONE CHATS. 
This sub-family in the British list contains, as 
our table points out, only two genera, and four 
species, the typical Stone Chats, and our well 
known bird, the Robin Red-breast. The first 
are all natives of the old world, frequenting the 
wilder solitary moorlands, the wastes and exten- 
sive downs and commons of Britain, the steppes 
of Eastern Europe, or the deserts of Africa and 
Asia, rendering them almost more desolate from 
associations produced by their monotonous click 
or note, or breaking the stillness by their fre- 
quent short flight from stone to stone, or from 
one tall plant to another. The colours of their 
plumage are sombre and unobtrusive, but they 
are blended in a pleasing arrangement of gray or 
