184 Our Bird Friends. 



later, and Thrnslics at about seventeen minutes after 

 the hour. 



The following morning they were astir as follows : 

 Thrushes at thirty-five minutes past seven : Rol)ins 

 three minutes later, followed by the lilackhirds at 

 ten nu'nutes to eight: House Sparrows two minutes 

 to the hour, and Great Tits exactly at eight oV-lock. 



T h;iv(" found by comparing my notes that many 

 s[)ecies will rise fifteen or twenty nu'nutes eailicr 

 on a ]»right, clear morning than ih<y do on a diilL 

 (larl< on(\ 



Tliiiishcs ;in(l liobiiis I'L'tii'r latest :iii'l ri-e earliest, 

 and tile diftercnees in the sleeping hnin-s ol" l^laek- 

 liii-ds and Tlirnshes in winter and snninier are 

 realK' wondertnl when we come to compare them. 



f'rom early and lati- singers we enme to a eon- 

 sidia'ation ot" Nocalists ot" the night. These are not 

 many, and the great chief ann^ng them, if not of all 

 sino-crs, is, of course, tin' Xi'_;htinL:'ale, a bird that has 

 given at once moi'C pleasuiv and more disa]ip«iint- 

 ment than any other Ih'itish songstei-. 



Having been boi'n and broULiht up in the ^'()rk- 

 shire Highlands, beveixl the birds most northern 

 range, 1 ncNcr heard it siu'^' nniil 1 was over twenty 

 years of a^e, and the poets had saturated me through 

 and thi'ougli with the most mu'easonable ideas 

 about "the sweet and plaintive Sappho of the dell'" 

 warlding notes "far too pure tor this gross earth,'' 

 "that float from heaven on wandering wing,'" that 

 "angels listen to,"' and so forth, and then, in conmiou 



