AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



superstitious dislike of the peasantry, and is called 

 " Devil's bird," in accordance with an old rhyme 

 suggesting that a " yellow yorling " will 

 Drink a drap o' the deil's blood 

 Every May morning. 



IT were hard to say which is the first true song of 

 Spring, since thrush and blackbird, wren, 

 Spring's hedge-sparrow, and robin uplift their 

 Bellman voices in mid- Winter. Probably the place 

 of honour would be given by many to the 

 first notes of the chiffchaff, as he calls his own name 

 in the woods on a day of March; no warbler has a 

 simpler song, but it is full of pleasant ideas of Spring, 

 and tells of violets and anemones. The mistle-thrush, 

 piping so rarely, is well called " Spring's Trumpeter," 

 and the great tit, " Spring's Bellman." As the hedge- 

 sparrow sings much the same tune as the wren, so the 

 chiffchaff and the great tit share a common song-motive, 

 though there is more vigour in the great tit's ringing 

 " whetstone " note, like the sound of a scythe being 

 sharpened, or like the ringing of a bell clamorous for 

 the rise of Spring's curtain. 



THE keeper of a nature-diary might make some curious 



records of the highest number of different 



A birds heard singing together at one time, 



January or within a space of two or three minutes. 



Chorus To give one humble January record, we 



heard in harmonious chorus in our garden 



this week blackbird and song- and mistle-thrush all 



singing in full-throated ease ; the great tit, starting the 



echoes with its two ringing notes; the chaffinch in 



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