132 A Midland Village: Garden and Meadow. 



as was probably the case with this pair, the 

 second brood would not be hatched till July. 

 The bird is singularly silent, never getting (within 

 my experience) beyond an oft-repeated and half- 

 whispered phrase, which consists of three notes, 

 or rather sounds, and no more ; the first is higher 

 and louder than the others, which are to my mind 

 much like that curious sound of disappointment 

 or anxiety which we produce by applying the 

 tongue to the roof of the mouth, and then sud- 

 denly withdrawing it. But is the Flycatcher 

 always and everywhere a silent bird ? 1 It is 

 most singular that he should be unattractive in 

 colour also gray and brown and insignificant ; 

 but perhaps in the eyes of his wife even his quiet 

 voice and gray figure may have weight. 



one, though they were abundant up to that time. Letters from 

 ornithological friends led me to believe that the birds have 

 almost entirely disappeared from South and East England by 

 about Sept. 1 2 ; and Mr. Seebohm is probably right in giving 

 the first week of September as the usual date of their departure. 

 How much less we know of the departure than of the arrival of 

 birds, so quietly do they slip away ! 



1 Mr. Seebohm (Brit. Birds, i. 325) tells us of a quiet little 

 warble, so low as to be scarcely heard at a few yards' distance : 

 but this I have never yet succeeded in catching. 



