FURZE-WREN OR FURZE-FAIRY 173 



throat, heard in the same localities, has a louder, 

 coarser song, which is not much softened or ether- 

 ealised by distance. The whitethroat's girding or 

 chiding note is familiar to everyone; the chiding 

 note of the furze-wren is like the same note subdued 

 and softened. It is this same chiding or scolding note 

 which is used in singing, only louder and more musical 

 and uttered with such extraordinary rapidity that 

 the note may be repeated eighteen or twenty times 

 in three seconds of time. The most hurried singing 

 of the sedge-warbler seems an almost languid per- 

 formance in comparison. This rapid utterance pro- 

 duces the effect of a continuous or sustained sound, 

 like the reeling of the grasshopper - warbler; the 

 character of the sound is, however, not the same; 

 it is rather like a buzzing or droning, as of a stag 

 beetle or cockchafer in flight, only with a slightly 

 metallic and musical quality added. This buzzing 

 stream of sound is interspersed with small, fine, 

 bright, clear notes, both shrill and mellow. Some of 

 these are very pure and beautiful. 



Meredith says of the lark's song that it is a 



silver chain of sound 

 Of many links, without a break. 



The same may be said of many other songsters all the 

 world over — all, in fact, that do not sing in a leisurely 

 manner, or, like the throstle and nightingale, with 

 frequent pauses. But chains differ in form; so with 

 these chains of sound of the rapid singers: in some 

 the links (otherwise, the notes) may be seen and 

 distinguished as separate parts of the piece. In the 



