CHANTICLEER 227 



up the challenge on the right, some near, some 

 far, until it seemed that there was scarcely a house 

 in the neighbourhood at which Chanticleer was 

 not a dweller. There was no other sound. Not 

 for another hour would the sparrows burst out 

 in a chorus of chirruping notes, lengthened or 

 shortened at will, variously inflected, and with 

 a ringing musical sound in some of them, which 

 makes one wonder why this bird, so high in the 

 scale of nature, has never acquired a set song for 

 itself. For there is music in him, and when con- 

 fined with a singing finch he will sometimes learn 

 its song. Then the robins, then the tits, then the 

 starlings, gurgling, jarring, clicking, whistling, 

 chattering. Then the pigeons cooing soothingly 

 on the roof and window-ledges, taking flight from 

 time to time with sudden, sharp flap, flap, fol- 

 lowed by a long, silken sound made by the wings 

 in gliding. At four the cocks had it all to them- 

 selves; and, without counting the cockerels (not 

 yet out of school), I could distinctly hear a dozen 

 birds; that is to say, they were near enough for 

 me to listen to their music critically. The variety 

 of sounds they emitted was very great, and, if 

 cocks were selected for their vocal qualities, 



