2 o6 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



properly appreciated when the listener stands or sits 

 on a level with the reeds within a very few yards 

 of the singer. 



Listening to the marsh warbler at some distance 

 it seemed to me at first that he sang his own song 

 interspersed with imitations, that the borrowed songs 

 and phrases were selections which accorded best with 

 his own notes, so that the whole performance was like 

 one ever-varying melody. On a closer acquaintance I 

 found that the performance was mainly or nearly all 

 imitations in which the loud, harsh, and guttural 

 sounds were subdued and softened — that the mocker's 

 native silvery sweetness had in some degree been 

 imparted to all of them. The species whose songs, 

 detached phrases, and calls I recognised were the 

 swallow, sparrow, goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, 

 redpoll, linnet, reed-bunting, blackbird (its chuckle 

 only), throstle, missel-thrush (its alarm or anger cry), 

 blackcap, willow - wren, robin, redstart, whinchat, 

 yellow wagtail, tree-pipit, skylark, and partridge — 

 its unmistakable call, but subdued and made musical. 

 There were also some notes and phrases that seemed 

 perfect copies from the nightingale, but I would not 

 say that they were imitations as there were no night- 

 ingales at that spot, and I came to the listening in a 

 sceptical spirit, quite resolved not to believe that 

 any note or phrase or song could be an imitation 

 unless the bird supposed to be imitated could be 

 found in the vicinity. Another bird I could not find 

 in the place was the grasshopper-warbler, yet one 

 day one of the birds I listened to produced what 



