178 Our Bird Friexds. 



The Yocal accomplishments of some Song Thrushes 

 are as much superior to those of others as are the 

 notes of an Albert Hall concert singer to those of 

 a bawling yokel in a couutrv sing-song. 



My brother and I have proved this in our attempts 

 to secure records on the phonograph and comparing 

 them. He used to get up very early in the morning, 

 climb evercrreens "Towins^- on a common not far 

 away, wherein we knew Thrushes habitually sang, 

 and Hx the instrument in such a position that he 

 could start it directly the birds conunenced to hold 

 forth at the hrst blink of day. We s])ent a lot of 

 time and money in our endeavours to record bird 

 songs, but to little purpose, as the records we did 

 obtain of Thruslies' notes in the way described in- 

 variably split on account of the wax being so 

 susc('j)lible to atmospheric changes. WTien near 

 enough to a bird to secure a really good record of 

 its son<»', the irrindinn' of the needle cuttinsj* the 

 vibrations of its notes in the wax cylinder invariably 

 frightened it away. We, however, made the interest- 

 ing discovery that wild, free Thrushes sometimes 

 sing under their breath, in the same way that human 

 beings hum tunes over to themselves. 



Bird songs are almost as difficult to turn into 

 words that represent their sounds as they are- to 

 write down in musical notation. I have often tried 

 to catch them in shorthand, but the speed at which a 

 Thrush can rattle otf his refrain is truly surprising 

 when the brain of the writer has to search for words 



