PECULIAR SOUNDS OF ANIMALS. 151 



ever, the young have left the nest and can fly from 

 danger, the food is brought to them, and received 

 with notes of pleasure and gratification. I have 

 often watched young fly-catchers, soon after they 

 have quitted their nest, perched on the top of a 

 gate, or on the dead branch of a tree, attended by 

 the parent birds, who merrily dart after flies and 

 small moths, and feed their brood with them. 

 These receive it with all the little blandishments 

 of love, quivering their wings, and exhibiting evi- 

 dent marks of satisfaction. The old birds utter 

 " an inward wailing note," as Mr. White calls it, 

 when their young are in danger. 



The black-bird* screams when alarmed, sings 

 when pleased, and has a peculiar note when sud- 

 denly surprized. A. gentleman at Grantham has 

 a Blackbird which frequents his orchard, and 

 which crows and chuckles as fowls do. It was 

 bred in a nest in a bush close to his hen-house. 

 Starlings which are restless, sociable birds, have 

 notes which resemble those of song birds, but they 

 are difficult to hear. They are low and plaintive. 



* A Goldfinch was lately (October, 1843,) brought to a bird- 

 stuffer at Margate, which had been for the long period of eighteen 

 years in its cage, and its plumage shewed, except in the wing 

 feathers, few marks of age. I had also the opportunity lately of 

 ascertaining the longevity of a blackbird. The Lodge Keeper of 

 the Queen Dowager's Lodge in Bushy Park had one of these birds 

 in a cage during a period of seventeen years. When I saw it, it 

 was nearly blind, and had every appearance of old age. 



