(Motacilla modularis, Linn.-La Fauvette d'Hiver, Buff.)

THE length of this well known bird is somewhat more than five inches. The bill is dark; eyes hazel; its general appearance is dusky brown; the feathers on the head, hinder part of the neck, back, wings, and tail are edged with rusty or pale tawny brown, plain on the rump, clouded, and dashed on the sides with deeper shades of those colours: the chin, throat, sides of the neck, and fore part of the breast are dull bluish ash; belly the same colour, but lighter; legs reddish brown.

This bird is commonly seen in hedges, from which circumstance it derives one of its names; but it has no other relation to the Sparrow than in the dinginess of

its colours; in every other respect it differs entirely. It remains with us the whole year, and builds its nest in hedges; it is composed of moss and wool, and lined with hair. The female generally lays four or five eggs, of a uniform pale blue, without any spots: the young are hatched about the beginning of May. During the time of sitting, if a cat or other voracious animal should happen to come near the nest, the mother endeavours to divert it from the spot by a stratagem similar to that by which the Partridge misleads the dog: she springs up, flutters from spot to spot, and by such means allures her enemy to a safe distance. In France this bird is rarely seen but in winter: it arrives generally in October, and departs in the spring for more northern regions, where it breeds. It is supposed to brave the rigours of winter in Sweden, and that it assumes the white plumage common in those severe climates in that season. Its song is little varied, but brisk and pleasant, especially in a season when all the other warblers are silent. It has already been observed that the Cuckoo sometimes deposits her egg in the nest of this bird.

(Motacilla Salicaria, Linn.-La Fauvette de roseaux, Buff.)

LENGTH five inches. Bill dusky; eyes hazel; crown of the head and back brown, with dusky streaks; rump tawny; cheeks brown; over each eye a light streak; wing coverts dusky, edged with pale brown, as are the quills and tail; throat, breast, and belly are white, the latter tinged with yellow; thighs yellow; legs dusky; the hinder claws much bent.

It frequents the sides of rivers and ponds, and also places where reeds and sedges grow, and builds there; the nest is made of dried grass, and tender fibres of plants, lined with hair, and usually contains five eggs of a dirty white, mottled with brown: it sings night and day, during the breeding time, imitating by turns the notes of various birds, from which it is also called the English Mock bird. The whole of this genus are so shy, that they will quit the nest if it be touched by any one.

(Sylvia Locustella, Lath.-Fauvette Tachetée, Buff.)

THIS bird is between five and six inches in length, and of a slender form. The tail is cuniform and rather long, as well as the legs; the wings short, reaching very little beyond the base of the tail. The irides are hazel; upper mandible dusky, the under one yellowish white towards the base: a brown streak passes from the bill to the eye, and a white one above it; the crown of the head, hinder part of the neck, shoulders, and upper part of the back are brown, with a slight tinge of olive, the middle of each feather dusky; the wings are nearly of the same colour, the feathers being dark in the middle, and edged with pale brown; the lower part of the back, upper tail coverts, and tail, are pale brown; the throat

and fore part of the neck are yellowish white, terminated by a few darkish spots on the upper part of the breast; the sides of the neck, and all the under parts are pale dingy yellow; legs nearly the same.

This bird is seldom seen, and is best known by the lengthened grinding, sibilous noise which it makes about the dusk of a still summer's evening. It artfully skulks among old furze bushes, or in the thickest brakes and hedges, from which it will not easily be forced away. We were favoured with the drawing from which our figure is taken, by Mr R. R. Wingate, and also with a sight of its nest which is composed of coarse dried grass, and about three inches in thickness, but very shallow; it contained five beautiful white eggs, closely freckled with carnation spots. Mr W. gives the following account of the cunning manner in which it places its nest. Having long wished to get the eggs, he, in June, 1815, succeeded in eyeing the bird to the distant passage on the top of a whin bush, by which it entered and left its nest. This he found was built at the bottom of a deep narrow furrow or ditch, overhung by the prickly branches of the whin, and grown over with thick coarse grass, matted together year after year, to the height of about two feet; all which he was obliged to take away piece-meal, before he succeeded in gaining the prize.