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Mr. W. E. Teschemaker



all its own. Though I have heard many Sprossers, it was not

until this season that I ever knew one attempt it and the fact

that the Sprosser can sing it but does not, except in rare instances,

do so maj' be said to show' that it has not the artistic taste of D.

luscinia.


The song of the Sprosser is exceedingly powerful and

mellow but it introduces tours which one feels that no true artist

would select. Some of these appear to be borrow'ed from the

Sedge-Warbler and Greater Reed Warbler and, in this connection,

we may note that, at all events in Central Europe, the favourite

nesting site of this species is a scrub-covered island in a river or

a dense thicket on a river bank. Perhaps I should not say

“borrowed from” because it is a tempting theory that the notes

of birds were in the first instance a reproduction of the familiar

sounds of their environment and anyone who has heard a Stone-

chat “chatting” on rocky ground can hardly doubt that there is

a substratum of truth in the hypothesis. Be this as it may, I

think that I am on safe ground if I say that there is at all events

a harmony between the songs of the reed-haunting species and

the voices of the liver, marsh and mere—the lapping of the water,

the croaking of frogs and the rustling and rattling of the reeds

bent by the wind ; so possibly it is to these influences and not

to the Sedge-Warbler that the Sprosser is indebted for some of

its tours. The most characteristic phrase of the Sprosser’s song

is called by the Germans the “Jacob” tour and sounds like the

word “tit-up” with the accent on the last syllable.


It is singular that, although the Sprossers song has more

volume than that of D. luscinia , it cannot be heard' at so great a

distance, on account of its lower pitch. I once had an opportu¬

nity of testing the carrying power of the Nightingale’s high tour

(“ chip-chip-cliip ”) and found that it could be heard on a still

evening at a distance of 750 yards and perhaps further. Never¬

theless the notes of the Sprosser are exceedingly powerful, as

may be judged from the fact that during the past spring I heard

one in an out-door aviary on several occasions challenge and

fairly sing down a Thrush.


I have spoken of the Sprosser’s song as though it were

something fixed and invariable but, as we all know, every in-



