104 BIRDS. 



factory than the " little bit o' bread and no cheese " attrib- 

 uted to the yellow-hammer, or the still worse " in another 

 week will come a wheatear," which is said at a certain 

 season to constitute the daily remark of the chaffinch. 

 (The German chaffinch, by the way, says "Fritz, Fritz.") 

 A few birds, such as the skulking corncrake, the night- 

 ingale, the cuckoo, and the lapwing, are as unmistakable 

 in their voice as in their appearance; but in the great 

 number of cases, identifying a bird by its note, as by its 

 flight, requires much practice and long residence in the 

 country. To add to the difficulty, many of our birds, 

 like the small woodpeckers, which warble quite agreeably 

 in the breeding season, are devoid of voice, other than a 

 harsh grunt, in winter; and, worse still, many others, 

 as the starling, thrush, sedge-warbler, jay, and magpie, 

 are such accomplished mimics as to make the confusion 

 worse than ever. In some cases, the study of bird-voice 

 is of course both interesting and profitable. Thus, one 

 ornithologist is said to have recognised in the crow over a 

 score of distinct notes, each conveying a different meaning, 

 which I believe he also translated ; while it is notorious 

 that old wildfowlers learn from the voice of the birds uj) 

 to which they are punting whether they are in suspicious 

 mood. 



It seems to me, however, that this subject is one rather 

 for close study than careless handling ; therefore I have 

 made but few references to it in the following pages. I 

 leave the subject, at any rate, in many zealous hands ; and 

 there will always be observers to tell of the whitethroat's 

 confession of "I did it, I did it"; of the "tzac, tzac" 

 of the shrike; or the "glock, glock" (see Crockett's 

 'Raiders') of the raven. 



A ready means of identifying many of our commoner 



birds, though one requiring observation at 



first hand, is by their flight. Country folk 



know at a glance the dash of the i^eregrine, the gliding 



of the kite, the hovering of the kestrel, the soaring of the 



