THE MARSH WARBLER'S MUSIC 207 



seemed to me a most perfect imitation of its reeling 

 performance. 



But how, the reader will ask, could the marsh 

 warbler have acquired the redpoll's song seeing that 

 the redpoll would be far away in its breeding haunts 

 in the pine forests of the north when the warbler 

 was in the west country ? Strange to say, there was a 

 small colony of half a dozen redpoll pairs breeding in 

 the hedgerow elms at the side of the withy bed. My 

 guide to the spot had told me of these birds, and it 

 was a rare pleasure to listen in southern England to 

 their slight pretty song in the elm tops, with its 

 curious little breezy trill like a dry leaf rapidly 

 fluttered by the wind against another leaf. 



I did not hear an imitation of the blackbird's song, 

 although its chuckling notes were sometimes given, 

 and it struck me that the marsh warbler, good artist 

 that he is, does not attempt, like the bungling starling, 

 to reproduce sounds that are outside of his register. 

 Other listeners, however, have said that he does mimic 

 the blackbird's song. Then, as to the whinchat, in 

 two days' listening I heard no imitation of its song, 

 although the bird was present and building in the 

 withy bed. I thought that that little delicious tender 

 song too was beyond the warbler's power; but I was 

 mistaken, and by-and-by I heard it reproduced so 

 perfectly that I could hardly believe my ears. The 

 wren's song I did not hear and concluded that the 

 warbler refused to copy it on account of its peculiar 

 distinctive sharp quality which some persons associate 

 in their minds with an acid flavour. 



