Our Native Songsters (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852 Excerpt: ...on the northern shores of the Mediterranean. It has been seen very far north, and Sir J. Ross says of it, " One of these little birds was observed flying round the ship in Felix Harbour, 70 N., 91 35' W., on the second of May, 1830, and was found dead alongside, the next morning: having arrived before the ground was sufficiently uncovered to enable it to procure its food, it had perished from want. It is the only instance of this bird having been met with in Arctic America, in the course of our several expeditions to those regions." Another bird, which is often to be heard and seen by those who ramble over the moorlands, is the Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola), but this prefers the downs well sprinkled with furze and other The Stonechat is five inches and a quarter in length. Upper parts black, except the rump and the tertial-coverts which are white; wing-feathers edged with brown; chin and throat black; sides of the neck white; breast rich chestnut-brown, lightening to buff on the lower parte; beak and feet black. In winter the whole of the dark plumage becomes broadly tipped with rustybrown; the breast and belly are paler than before. The colours of the female are not very different from this condition. moment after swallowing it, singing a song of pleasure. Now and then it rests from its almost continual movements, and perching on the top of a rock or stone, or on the extremity of some branch, pours forth a melody which, though short, comes to us, as we lie on the green sward, as a ohaunt in praise of summer and sunshine. But even ere the song seems hardly finished, away flits the bird, rising in the air by sudden springs, agitating perpetually its tail and its wings, then coming down "in a sort of pirouette," and now appearing and disap...