BIRD SONGS AND BIRD TALK 225 



erary English. But I hope he will do the 

 best he can, and I promise to buy his book. 



The linnet's was the first spring song, I 

 said ; but it was first by an inch only ; for 

 even while I was setting down the paragraph 

 a white-breasted nuthatch broke into a whis- 

 tle close by my window. I turned at once to 

 look at him. There he stood, in the top of 

 the elm, perched crosswise upon a small twig, 

 just as a sparrow might have been, and every 

 half a minute throwing forward his head 

 and emitting that peculiar whistle, broken 

 into eight or ten syllables. Between times 

 he looked to right and left, as if he had 

 been calling for some one and was expecting 

 a response. No response came, and after a 

 little he disappeared. 



That was the second spring song, and a 

 good one, though not to be compared with 

 the linnet's for musical quality. Now, say 

 I, who bids for the third place ? Perhaps it 

 will be a bluebird, perhaps a robin, perhaps 

 a song sparrow. 



