EARLY SPRING IN SAVERNAKE FOREST 97 



but that each bird that has a song has invented it 

 for himself. It varies from " a sort of low song," 

 as Montagu said, a soft chatter and warble which 

 one can just hear at a distance of thirty or forty 

 yards, to a song composed of several musical 

 notes harmoniously arranged, which may be heard 

 distinctly a quarter of a mile away. This set and 

 far-reaching song is rare, but some birds have a 

 single very powerful and musical note, or short 

 phrase, which they repeat at regular intervals by 

 way of song. If by following up the sound one 

 can get near enough to the tree where the meet- 

 ing is being held to see what is going on, it is most 

 interesting to watch the vocalist, who is like a 

 leader, and who, perched quietly, continues to 

 repeat that one powerful, unchanging, measured 

 sound in the midst of a continuous concert of more 

 or less musical sounds from the other birds. 



What I should very much like to know is, whether 

 these powerful and peculiar notes, phrases, and 

 songs of the jay, which are clearly not imitations 

 of other species, are repeated year after year by 

 the birds in the same localities, or are dropped for 

 ever or forgotten at the end of each season. It 

 is hard for me to find this out, because I do not 

 as a rule revisit the same places in spring, and on 



G 



