THE FULL CHORUS 93 



delirium. Very often their high spirits lead to combative- 

 ness ; the vitality of thrushes or robins leads them to sing 

 against one another in rivalry, much as schoolboys tumbling 

 out of school will snatch off one another's caps or flog one 

 another with their satchels. The common statement that the 

 cock bird sings to win the affections of the hen mistakes the 

 consequence for the cause. The hen does not listen and com- 

 pare the songs like a judge at a musical contest, and proceed 

 to award herself as the prize, but is captivated by the vitality 

 which causes the cock to sing and enables him to beat off a 

 rival by force of beak and wing. 



Yet, although there is no definite point at which the utter- 

 ance of birds becomes musical, or their cries may be said to 

 develop into song, the most marked difference in the songs of 

 our English birds is between those which consist of a single 

 set phrase or ditty, and those which consist of along, flowing 

 strain. The chaffinch and blue-tit are two of the most con- 

 spicuous singers of set ditties ; the skylark and blackcap have 

 two of the most perfect songs of the freer kind. The missel- 

 thrush, with its three wild notes endlessly repeated, is a 

 phrase-singer of a more rudimentary type than the chaffinch ; 

 the chiffchaff or cuckoo, with only two notes, is cruder still. 

 The two notes of the corncrake are indistinguishable, and so 

 grating that the bird can be deceived by stroking the teeth 

 of a comb ; yet its cries are as pleasant as music in the peace- 

 ful May nights, and the bird itself seems to take endless 

 satisfaction in them and to be singing in its own mind like 

 any dove. The churring and whirring monologues of the 

 nightjar and grasshopper-warbler have a very slight change 

 of pitch from time to time, but otherwise are as monotonous 

 as is possible for any sound produced by vocal chords ; yet 

 these, too, are the characteristic expression of the birds' 

 vitality, as much as the chattering music of the sedge-warbler 



