took tea at an inn and then tramped through the forest to an inn on its other 

 side, at Brockenhnrst. At the conclusion of our walk my companion made a 

 list of the birds we had seen, putting an asterisk ("*') opposite those which we 

 had heard. sing. There were forty-one of the former and twenty-three of the 

 latter, as follows : 



*Thrush, ^blackbird, *lark, '''yellowhammer, '■•'robin, 'Hvren, *golden-crested 

 wren, ^''goldfinch, =^chafifincl\, ^greenfinch, pied wagtail, sparrow, 'Munnock 

 (hedge accentor), missel thrush, starling, rook, jackdaw, *blackcap, *garden 

 warbler, *willow warbler, ''xhifiFchaff, *wood warbler, treecreeper, *reed bunt- 

 ing, *sedge warbler, coot, water hen, little grebe (dabchick), tufted duck, wood 

 pigeon, stock dove, *turtle dove, peewit, tit (? coal tit), *cuckoo, *nightjar, 

 *swallow, martin, swift, pheasant, partridge. 



Birds were plentiful ; I know few places in America where one would 

 see such an abundance of individuals, and I was struck by seeing such large 

 birds as coots, water hens, grebes, tufted ducks, pigeons, and peewits. In places 

 in America as thickly settled as the valley of tlie Itchen I should not expect to 

 see any like number of birds of this size. 



The bird that most impressed me on my walk was the blackbird. I had 

 already heard nightingales in abundance near Lake Como, and had also listened 

 to larks, but I had never heard either the blackbird, the song thrush, or ;the 

 blackcap warbler ; and while I knew that all three were good singers, I did 

 not know what really beautiful singers they were. Blackbirds were very abundant, 

 and they played a prominent part in the chorus which we heard throughout the 

 day on every hand, though perhaps loudest the following morning at dawn. 

 In its habits and manners the blackbird strikingly resembles our American robin, 

 and indeed looks exactly like a robin with a yellow bill and coal-black plumage. 

 It hops everywhere over the lawns, just as our robin does, and it lives and nests 

 in the gardens in the same fashion. Its song has a general resemblance to that 

 of our robin, but many of the notes tare far more musical, more like those. of 

 our wood thrush. Indeed, there were individuals among those we heard certain 

 of whose notes seemed to me almost to equal in point of melody the chimes 

 of the wood thrush ; and the highest possible praise for any song-bird is to liken 

 its song to that of the wood thrush or hermit thrush. I certainly do not think 

 that the blackbird has received full justice in the books. I knew that he was a 

 singer, but I really had no idea how fine a singer he was. I suppose one of his 

 troubles has been his name, just as with our own catbird. When he appears in 

 the ballads as the merle, bracketed with his cousin the mavis, the song thrush, 

 it is far easier to recognize him as the master singer that he is. It is a firte 

 thing for England to have such an asset of the countryside, a bird so common, 

 so much in evidence, so fearless, and such a really beautiful singer. 



The thrush is a fine singer too, a better singer than our American robin, 

 but to my mind not at the best quite as good as the blackbird at his best ; although 



34 



