AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



class to itself, the mouse-like tree-creeper, most modest 

 and retiring of all our birds, yet always at work, hope- 

 fully climbing trees. But at this happy season of the 

 year it often breaks its rule of silence by uttering a tiny, 

 shrill, sibilant note, and a ghost of a song of three or 

 four notes : even the tree-creeper feels the spring fever. 



THE jay screams if you pass his nest ; the blackbird 

 cackles; the tomtit hisses like a snake; but 

 Songs of the wren challenges by a ringing lyric, as if 

 Challenge daring you to approach one step nearer to 

 his secret. The sudden, loud song may well 

 distract attention from the nest, which perhaps is the 

 wren's idea. The lark also sings if put up from a nest, 

 and the sedge-warbler, newly returned to its reedy 

 haunt of yesteryear, outpours a hurried song whenever 

 disturbed, by day or night. The whitethroat, too, sings 

 to scold trespassers. 



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