ENGLISH BIRD-LIFE 401 



should write of scenes and sounds which circumstances ren- 

 der most characteristic and conspicuous, the result, so far as 

 birds are concerned, is the establishment of misleading 

 standards and undeserved reputations. Thus, either be- 

 cause they were unknown or because they did not fit a theme, 

 some of England 1 ^ best songsters have been neglected by 

 the poets. 



There, for example, is the Eeed Warbler, whose sustain- 

 ed, continued song possesses a variety and volume which 

 makes it, to my mind, one of the most pleasing of English 

 song-birds ; or that charming bit of bird music, the easy, 

 flowing, graceful, natural song of the Willow Warbler. The 

 Tree Pipit, too, is an exceptionally good singer, while the 

 wild, sweet, rapid, highly lyrical song of the Blackcap is a 

 performance of unusual merit, suggesting the song of our 

 Orchard Oriole. 



But whether or not the visiting student of English bird- 

 life is fortunate enough to have a friend at Cambridge or in 

 some equally favorable locality, he should under no consid- 

 eration fail to make a pilgrimage to Selborne. To my mind 

 there is no place in England where the characteristic birds 

 of the country can be seen and heard to better advantage. 



Five miles from a railway and the nearest town, Selborne 

 does not seem to have changed materially since the days of 

 Gilbert White. Whether as the home of White or as a bit of 

 rural England, Selborne more than satisfies one's precon- 

 ceived ideals ; although they are generally of so composite a 

 nature, so wrought of numberless impressions that usually 

 ,they are too far from the mark ever to be realized. But he 

 who cannot find in Selborne 's lanes and hedgerows, pastures 

 and cultivated fields, beech-woods and gorse, thatched roofs 

 and chimney pots, sturdy horses and plodding teamsters, 

 village and manor life, material with which to construct 

 every picture of English country-life he had ever imagined, 

 should control his imagination and develop his constructive 

 abilities. 



