30 BIRD NOTES 



almost entirely made of white alyssurn. I got a 

 dreadful scolding whenever I went near the place, 

 but after the fifth attempt they gave it up. Last 

 year they tried the same thing, and I removed 

 two nests ; I however allowed a thrush that had 

 built below to remain, and bring up its brood there. 

 After the thrushes were gone, the sparrows imme- 

 diately built on the top of the forsaken thrush's 

 nest ! They seem to have drawn the conclusion, 

 rather too hastily but not irrationally, that that 

 must be a safe place for them. I do not know 

 that their thoughts took the shape of words, but 

 they chattered over it immensely, and I do not 

 know where the line can be drawn between words 

 and exclamations, nor between those and the cries 

 of birds, which are more varied and numerous 

 and distinctive in purpose than is generally ima- 

 gined. 



It may be said that there is no progress nor 

 addition to the language of birds ; but I am not 

 sure of this. Last winter a robin, accustomed to 

 be fed on my window-sill with bits of bacon, 

 invented a note by which it called me to the 

 window to feed it. It was a quite peculiar note, 

 hushed, muttered, short ; the object seemed to be 

 to reach my ear and not that of rival birds. I 

 always found it waiting for the opening of the 

 window and putting out of the food ; it would 



