PERSONALITY IN BIRDS 217 



Upon inspection of the six birds that I have set 

 down together, more from a feeling of congruousness 

 than according to any reasoned method, to form the 

 second group of Warblers, I recognise in them birds 

 of a more arboreal habit ; still restless, but without 

 brusquenes ; retiring, but not so as to shun ; voluble, 

 but with a volubility of song that in some of them 

 all but touches the highest of all singing. Frailty 

 of structure and gentleness of manner are, in most 

 of the birds of this group, allied to a refinement in 

 song that, with their airy haunting of leafy spaces, 

 invests them with something of an ethereal charm. 



The Lesser Whitethroat, allied to the first group 

 by his abrupt gestures and spasmodic, unmusical 

 song, claims to lead in this second group as a 

 frequenter of the high tree tops. His is a personality 

 of no great distinction, and the best one may say 

 of him is that he bears cheerfully the mediocrity 

 inseparable from the role of an intermediate form 

 However, he is not alone in his lack of personal 

 distinction. 



If the songless Chiffchaff for only by courtesy 

 can his speech-like "tkiffl chaff!" be considered 

 song be admitted to this group, it is because his 

 whole personality is in other respects so narrowly 

 divided from those of the Willow-wren and Wood- 

 wren, that it would be impossible to exclude him; 

 just as, owing to the close outward resemblance of 

 these three birds, early naturalists failed for a long 

 time to distinguish them as different forms. And 

 because these three birds are so similar in aspect 

 and so inseparably bound together, it becomes 

 interesting to note their points of difference. The 



