SILENCE AND MUSIC 157 



The redstart's best and opening note is bright yet 

 plaintive, and reminds one at the same time of two 

 such unlike songsters as the swallow and the robin. 



Sitting quietly on a low bush the whinchat will 

 sometimes warble for half-an-hour at a stretch, utter- 

 ing his few notes, and repeating them after an interval 

 so short as to produce at a little distance the effect 

 of a continuous warble like that of the garden-warbler 

 or sedge-warbler. But he is never like them excited, 

 and in a hurry to get his notes out: he sings in a 

 leisurely manner. Now one June day in a furzy place 

 I began to hear the almost continuous warble of the 

 bird, and standing still I tried to catch sight of him in 

 a clump about fifty yards away. I was sure he was in 

 that clump and could not be further away, for even 

 a distance of fifty yards was almost too far to hear 

 so low a song distinctly. I sat down to listen and 

 watch, and the song, very sweet and beautiful, went 

 on and on, and still I could see nothing. At length 

 I got up and went to the clump and saw no bird, 

 but the song still went on no louder than before : 

 I walked, following up the sound, and discovered the 

 bird at a distance of over four hundred yards from 

 where I had began to listen to it. 



I was greatly surprised on this occasion at the 

 distance sound will travel on these silent hills ; I 

 was still more surprised on another day when I met 

 with an amusing experience. 



Sometimes, when in some very lonely spot, such 



