138 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



or anger, have been inherited by thrushes and the ring- 

 ouzel, and have been lost in the blackbird. I have 

 been told that the blackbird does occasionally emit the 

 low robin-like wailing note when its nest is approached, 

 but have never heard it myself. 



One would like to listen to and compare the sounds 

 emitted by all the thrushes of the world — the spotted 

 ground thrushes (Gcochicla), supposed to be the parental 

 form; the typical thrushes (Turdus) ; and the blackbirds 

 (Merula). Ornithologists pay little or no attention to 

 the language of birds when considering the question of 

 evolution, but here it might help us to a right conclusion 

 of the question whether the blackbirds are an offshoot 

 of the typical thrushes, or sprang independently from 

 the ground thrushes. In studying the language of the 

 blackbird alone one might spend half a lifetime very 

 pleasantly. In the development of their vocal organs 

 they stand highest among birds, and they have a world- 

 wide distribution, numbering about seventy species. 

 What more fascinating object in life for a wandering 

 Englishman who desires to see all lands, who loves birds 

 and above all others the "garden ouzel" of his home? 

 A missionary writes that there is no living thing in 

 Samoa which gives him so much the home feeling as 

 this bird — its blackbird, Merula samoensis. The English 

 spring is recalled to another in Ceylon by the ouzel of 

 that country. Yet another wanderer in Somaliland is de- 

 lightfully reminded of home by the native blackbird. 

 And doubtless others have had the same feeling pro- 

 duced in them by other blackbirds in other regions — in 



