PERSONALITY IN BIRDS 219 



eye ! is there any expression of itself more intimate 

 than this ? And yet, only he who has looked nearly 

 into it knows how deep is the narrow interval between 

 man and bird. 



Chiff-chaff, Willow-wren, and Wood-wren had 

 man essayed to embody the diverse personalities of 

 these three birds, so like and yet so unlike, he would 

 have taken one stuff of Chiffchaffs, sober and plain ; 

 another of Willow- wrens, instinct with simple grace; 

 and for the Wood-wren, some fine stuff of passion 

 and poesy to form a creature half spirit and half 

 bird. But Nature, cunningly simple, of one bird, 

 as it were, made three ; and sent them out so 

 similarly fashioned that men's eyes were for a while 

 deceived; but endowed with such diversity of song 

 that their ears were not less astonished. And to the 

 Chiffchaff she gave a spoken word for song ; to the 

 Willow-wren that perfect cadence each note of which 

 is pierced, as it were, to the centre with unerring 

 art ; but upon the Wood-wren she laid the burden 

 of a song that cannot be sung. The Chiffchaffs 

 note is casual ; the Willow-wren's rounded phrase 

 at times slips from it automatically as the bird glides, 

 engrossed in its search, among the leaves ; but the 

 Wood-wren sings not so. Perched on some lofty 

 branch of a woodland tree, tensely erect and with 

 head thrown back, he sets himself to sing. The 

 small body is shaken as with passionate effort, the 

 singer addressing himself now toward one side, now 

 toward another, as an orator might do who sought 

 to drive home his words with greater force by 

 directing them, as it were particularly, now here, 

 now there, among his auditory. And of all the 



