i86 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



pare the fresh, hard surfaces for the vegetation that 

 makes a ruin beautiful — valerian, ivy-toadflax, wall- 

 flower, and grey and green lichens and mosses. 



In the course of conversation I had with some of 

 those engaged in these works at the Abbey, during 

 which the subject of birds came up, Mr. Blythe Bond, 

 the gentleman who has charge of the excavations, in- 

 formed me that a blackbird in his garden whistled a 

 perfect musical phrase. 



He took me to hear it at his house in High Street, 

 which had a large garden at the back; there we seated 

 ourselves in the summer-house and in a very few minutes 

 the bird began fluting his little human roundelay for our 

 benefit. My host whistled and hummed it after him, 

 then took me to his drawing-room and touched it off on 

 his piano, and finally when I told him that after all it 

 would perhaps escape my memory he noted it down for 

 me, and here it is: 



3^ 



It is not a rare thing to hear phrases in the blackbird's 

 singing which are like human music and speech and may 

 be taken down in our musical notation. I will give a 

 quotation here on this subject from one of C A. Johns' 

 pleasant but forgotten little books — Home Walks and 

 Holiday Rambles (1863). 



"A blackbird had stationed himself on the top of a 

 tree hard by, and seemed resolved to sing on until fine 



