AUTUMN BIRD LIFE 247 



or ripple, whose flight is over the very centre 

 of the dancing current, whose favourite perch 

 is some stone round which the water noises and 

 sparkles, sing all the year round ? Other birds, 

 which haunt the silent woods, or retired hedge- 

 rows, may, in like manner, be dumb for sympathy, 

 or want of stimulus. And, is not winter the very 

 season when the bed of the stream is fullest, when 

 the flow is swiftest, and the merry din is loudest ? 



Or, is it the never-failing larder of the water, 

 whose current will not stay long enough to be 

 frozen, whose surface covers the larvae of all next 

 year's dancing water insects, that maintains body 

 and spirit alike at the singing pitch ? 



I do not say that these accounts of the robin's, 

 and the water-ousel's song are to be taken without 

 reservation. But that they do sing, while other 

 birds are silent, is a somewhat singular fact, which 

 calls for some manner of explanation. If one 

 never asks himself questions, and tries to find 

 answers, he will never discover anything; in 

 addition to remaining an uninterested, and unintelli- 

 gent spectator. A speculation, which has no other 

 outcome than to incite others to find fault, and 

 suggest a better, has still its uses. 



And there are other problems besides these to 



