26 Mr. J. Black wall's Observations on the Notes of Birds. 



This long catalogue of birds, most of which, it appears, are 

 to be found in this immediate neighbourhood, composes the 

 feathered choir that enlivens the pastoral scenery of England 

 with a rich and varied melody of song, which probably is not 

 surpassed in any part of the known globe. 



The following poetical description of the vernal chorus, with 

 which I shall close these observations, is from Thomson's 

 Seasons, — Spring. 



" Up springs the lark. 

 Shrill-voiced, and loud, the messenger of morn ; 

 Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings 

 Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunt* 

 Calls up the tuneful nations. Every copse 

 Deep-tangled, tree irregular, and bush 

 Bending with dewy moisture, o'er the head* 

 Of the coy quiristers that lodge within. 

 Are prodigal of harmony. The thrush 

 And wood-lark, o'er the kind contending throng 

 Superior heard, run through the sweetest length 

 Of notes ; when listening Philomela deigns 

 To let them joy, and purposes in thought 

 Elate, to make her night excel their day. 

 The blackbird whistles from the thorny brake ; 

 The mellow bullfinch answers from the grove : 

 Nor are the linnets, o'er the flowering furze 

 Pour'd out profusely, silent. Join'd to these, 

 Innumerous songsters, in the freshening shade 

 Of new-sprung leaves, their modulations mix 

 Mellifluous. The jay, the rook, the daw, 

 And each harsh pipe, discordant heard alone. 

 Aid the full concert ; while the stock-dove breathes 

 A melancholy murmur through the whole." 



are so mean, that I am inclined to believe that he has attributed the song 

 of the sedge warbler to this species, especially as he remarks, in a note, 

 that it sings in the night, an error by no means uncommon among orni- 

 thologists, — yet, if this is the case, he has greatly underrated it ; for though 

 harsh in tone, and hurried in manner, and though the same note is repeated 

 frequently in succession, it certainly possesses great variety, and is, upon 

 the whole, rather agreeable. 



t I have included the Dartford warbler, and the water ouzel, on the 

 authority of Montagu. (See the Supplement to his Ornithological Dic- 

 tionary.) The former I never saw alive, and therefore could have no 

 means of estimating its song; and though I am well acquainted with the 

 latter, I have never had an opportunity of hearing its notes. 



III. Decas 



