180 SUMMER 



As one listens to the songs of these invisible singers with 

 an enjoyment that is quite inexplicable, and tries at all to 

 analyse the charm, one at once realises that the songs are 

 not in any strict sense music. What are the most notable 

 singers ? Probably if a competition were held for the finest 

 singer among birds five candidates would take the votes : 

 the nightingale and the blackcap from the migrants ; the 

 blackbird, thrush, and lark from our home birds. Perhaps a 

 few would maintain the cause of the missel-thrush and the 

 willow-warbler. 



Of all these the blackbird is the only one which can be 

 called musical or tuneful in the sense 

 that one generally gives to 'music' or 

 ' tune.' He almost, perhaps quite, 

 whistles an air. The notes are clear, 

 and succeed one another with a recog- 

 nisable connection. The tone is fluty; 

 and when this early morning singer 

 breaks through your sleep, you might 

 mistake him for a cheerful boy whistling 

 odd bars for sheer lightness of heart. Some people can only 

 admire the blackbird among birds. They can find no har- 

 mony to which their ears can respond in other songs. To 

 their sense the robins and thrushes merely make noises, 

 which are perhaps some addition to the sense of gaiety in 

 things, but not sufficiently interesting or musical to warrant 

 the trouble in distinguishing. ' I know the robin's song 

 only because it stops so suddenly,' or ' That must be a 

 thrush because it is saying "Pretty Dick, pretty Dick'" — 

 their perception of the points of the many songs does not 

 go further than this. At the other end of the scale we find 

 ears so finely tuned to the notes of birds that every song 

 can be remembered as well as recognised. Mr. Hudson, 



