220 PERSONALITY IN BIRDS 



passion and the effort there results a song that is 

 curious ; a shivering shake not unlike the crushed-up 

 trill of the Corn-bunting, though the one is born of 

 indolence, and the other is the vehement utterance 

 of a creature visibly thrilled through with rapture. 

 And because of the magnitude of the effort and of 

 the inadequacy of the achievement, we write down 

 the song of the Wood-wren a failure, knowing well 

 the facile criticism to which such a statement is 

 exposed. But it is a failure of a sort for which some 

 of us would not exchange a world of melody. 



If I have dwelt at some length upon the Chiffchaff, 

 Willow-wren and Wood-wren, it is because they afford 

 a notable example of sharp distinction of personality 

 among birds outwardly indistinguishable by any but 

 a practised eye. On the other hand, in passing to 

 the remaining members of this group the Blackcap 

 and Garden-warbler we approach two birds differing 

 not inconsiderably in their outward garb, but 

 remarkably alike in their general habits and in their 

 songs the latter very highly developed ones. 

 Hearing these two birds sing, and finding their 

 songs closely modelled on a common type, one 

 realises with new significance what before had 

 been accepted as a matter of course that 

 different birds have different songs. How came 

 different birds to have different songs ? Are the 

 songs as the songsters themselves are held to be 

 the result of variations from a common type ? Can 

 we trace the type in widely varying forms of song ? 

 Is variation observable now in the songs of birds of 

 the same species? 



Premising that difference of song in birds is in a 



