A WOOD WREN AT WELLS 107 



perch is reached — first the distinct notes that are 

 like musical strokes, and fall faster and faster until 

 they run and swell into a long passionate trill — 

 the woodland sound which is like no other. 



Charming a creature as the wood wren appears 

 when thus viewed closely in the early spring-time, 

 he is not my favourite among small birds because 

 of his beauty of shape and colour and graceful 

 motions, which are seen only for a short time, but 

 on account of his song, which lasts until September ; 

 though I may not find it very easy to give a reason 

 for the preference. 



It comforts me a little in this inquiry to re- 

 member that Wordsworth preferred the stock- 

 dove to the nightingale — that " creature of ebul- 

 lient heart." The poet was a little shaky in his 

 ornithology at times ; but if we take it that he 

 meant the ring-dove, his preference might still 

 seem strange to some. Perhaps it is not so very 

 strange after all. 



If we take any one of the various qualities which 

 we have agreed to consider highest in bird-music, 

 we find that the wood wren compares badly with 

 his fellow-vocalists — that, measured by this stan- 

 dard, he is a very inferior singer. Thus, in variety, 

 he cannot compare with the thrush, garden-warbler, 



