NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



on the flat-wooded country on the north of the downs 

 these birds are, I think, just as numerous. Home 

 again from his long outing, the missel- thrush soon 

 begins to sing ; and if you should observe him in 

 rough or gloomy weather, perched on an elm-top, 

 swayed about this way and that by the gusts, singing 

 his best, you must believe that this dark aspect of 

 things delights him ; that his pleasure in life, ex- 

 pressed with such sounds and in such circumstances, 

 must greatly exceed in degree the contentment and 

 bliss that is ours, even when we are most free from 

 pain or care, and our whole beings most perfectly 

 in tune with nature. 



As to the song; although we probably value it 

 most for its associations, and because it is often heard 

 when other bird-voices are silent, it is also beautiful 

 in itself. The sound is beautiful in quality, but the 

 singer has no art, and flings out his notes anyhow ; 

 the song is an outburst, a cry of happiness, and is over 

 in a moment, and after a moment of silence he repeats 

 it, and so on for ten or twenty minutes or longer. In 

 its quality the sound is most like the blackbird's ; and 

 when, in early spring, the blackbird, perched on a 

 tree-top, first tries his long disused voice, the short 

 confused phrases he blurts out are so like the song 

 of the missel-thrush that any one may be easily de- 

 ceived by them. The difference in the voices of the 

 two birds is that the missel-thrush is not so full and 

 mellow, and is slightly metallic or bell-like ; and it 



