96 BIRD-SONGS ABOUT WORCESTER. 



lish and American song-birds, John Bur- 

 roughs, in his " Fresh Fields," writes : — 



" I could well understand, after being in Eng- 

 land a few days, why, to English travellers, our 

 songsters seem inferior to their own. They are 

 much less loud and vociferous ; less abundant 

 and familiar ; one needs to woo them more ; 

 they are less recently out of the wilderness ; 

 their songs have the dehcacy and wildness of 

 most woodsy farms, and are as plaintive as the 

 whistle of the wind. They are not so happy a 

 race as the English songsters, as if life had more 

 trials for them, as doubdess it has, in their en- 

 forced migrations and in the severer climate with 

 which they have to contend. On the whole, I 

 may add that I did not anywhere in England 

 hear so fine a burst of bird-song as I have heard 

 at home, and I listened long for it and atten- 

 tively. Not so fine in quality, though perhaps 

 greater in quantity." 



Among English travellers Burroughs re- 

 fers particularly to the Duke of Argyle, 

 who contributed to Frazer's Magazine for 

 1880 two very interesting papers entitled 

 \ *' Some First Impressions of America." 

 These papers dealt chiefly with nature 



