MARCH SUNSHINE 71 



orchard becomes a kind of school, where rivalries 

 are marked by intermittent outbursts of harsh and 

 brawling notes, and even by angry combats. Then 

 the starling supplies a real comic element. 

 Nature presents few sights more exquisitely absurd 

 than that of the starling posted in a tree not far. 

 from one in which a blackbird is singing. It 

 takes up its position on the topmost bough, and 

 throws itself into the ecstatic attitude of a great 

 artist. The bill is set at a high upward angle, 

 the throat swells, and the feathers which cover 

 it are in rippling motion. The whole body of 

 the bird quivers as if with the pride of masterly 

 execution, yet at twenty yards not a sound can 

 be heard but a low, castanet-like rattling of the 

 rapidly moving mandibles. At ten yards the song 

 can be heard an unmistakable imitation of the 

 blackbird's, wonderfully perfect in its way. It 

 would be admirable, but the whole pose of the 

 songster seems to express his absolute conviction 

 that his reduced version is even superior to the 

 real thing, and the impression is one of comicality 

 alone. The starling's own song is a far from 

 unpleasant twitter, but the bird is full of vanity, 

 and is constantly proving to its own satisfaction 

 that it can out-sing the finest songster in the grove. 

 In a week or two its greatest efforts will be lost 

 in the grand chorus. 



