224 
GENERAL REMARKS 
and comfort. The infecfts and wild berries furnifh them with a 
plentiful fubfiftence : and as there is no night, which would oblige 
their young ones to fail, or check their growth by its chilling cold, 
they are able to diveft themfelves of their family cares in a much 
fhorter fpace of time than they could do in other diftri&s. 
1 have, in the courfe of this work, mentioned more than once 
the fongs of the birds, with which the woods of Lapland re-echo. 
I have often been aftonifhed to hear in thefe places birds fing very 
charmingly, which I had before confidered as mute, and totally 
deprived by nature of all vocal power. The motacilla trochilus of 
Linnasus, which comes to Italy about autumn, is in Lombardy 
called tut, becaufe its fhort and abrupt cry bears a refemblance to 
this found: but the fame bird may juftly be termed the nightin¬ 
gale of the north. It fettles on the moft lofty branches of the 
birch-trees, and makes the air refound with accents melodious, 
bold, and full of harmony. This is likewife the cafe with the em¬ 
ber iza geniclos, which has a clear and flrong voice ; and animates 
with its mufical notes the fhades of the alder and willow-trees, 
that grow by the fides of the brooks and rivers. 
But there is another bird, which more highly deferves our ad¬ 
miration, as it furpaflfes all the reft by the beauty of its plumage 
and the fweetnefs of its voice : this is the motacilla fuecica. It lives 
in the bullies of marfhy places, and particularly likes to perch on 
the dwarf-birch, (hetula nana, Linn.); its flight is generally low : it 
makes its nelt in the mofs, and lays between five and feven eggs, 
of a greenifh colour, nearly refembling that of the mofs, with 
which 
