Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/93

80 localities; while those insects that affect humid and wet places are the chosen food of Wagtails and Titlarks (Motacillinæ); and, lastly, the Tits (Parirnæ) search assiduously among the buds and tender shoots of trees, thus destroying a multitude of hidden enemies to vegetation.

The birds of this Family have the beak slender, tapering to the point, both of the mandibles having, in most cases, the vertical outline slightly arched, and the lateral outline slightly incurved: the tip is perceptibly notched. Their form is elegant, their plumage fine and close, and their prevailing colours are olive-brown, yellow, and blue, often chastely but beautifully arranged, and sometimes set off with deep black. Their motions are sprightly, but their flight is feeble; yet they are almost all migratory, inhabiting the torrid zone during the winter months, and visiting temperate climates in the spring, where they breed during the summer. We have remarked that most of them are musical, and though of many, the song, if heard alone, would be scarcely thought worthy of admiration, yet, when mingled with many more, each contributes its part to that concert of many notes that fills the groves in spring, and which, though a confused medley of melody, never fails to please, and even charm the auditor.

The generic characters of the Nightingales are the following:— the beak straight, the upper edge rounded, the tip slightly bent, and notched; the wings, with the first quill very short, the third