HEREDITY 109 



the blackbird, the phrases being less extended than 

 those of the latter, and of wider range, and containing 

 more slurs than the song of the former. Both black- 

 bird and mistle- thrush habitually break from their 

 full notes into some high shrill squeaks, which end 

 their phrases. The nightingale follows the same 

 method, but only in a slight degree. Bechstein 

 has suggested some of its phrases by these 

 words : 



TiS, tid^ tio, tiOy tio, tioy tio, tix. 



Tzn tzu tzu tzu tzu tzu tzu tzu tzu tzi. 



Dzoi^e, dzorre, dzorre^ dzorre^ hi. 



In each of these, and other similar examples 

 stated by this author, the final syllable well 

 suggests the frequent short concluding note of the 

 bird. There is not a close resemblance between the 

 songs of the blackbird and robin ; yet each is a 

 succession of full tones, and in this respect is like the 

 full song of the blackcap and some of the strains of 

 the nightingale. Mr. Herbert C. Playne, who has 

 heard numbers of garden warblers near Oxford, 

 informs me that the song of this bird is very like 

 that of the blackcap.^ The long notes of the 

 nightingale, by means of which most people dis- 



^ See also Harting, Birds of Middlesex, p. 50. 



