INTRODUCTION. 7 



Blackcap, and the Garden Warbler. These birds are 

 common in England, and of late the Blackcap and Gar- 

 den Warbler have been frequently observed in our own 

 Green Isle ; yet this is but in a few localities, and even 

 in these favoured spots Blackcaps do not sing as in 

 England. I first heard this remarked by my friend 

 Mr. A. G. More, and my own experience confirms it ; 

 for the Blackcap, as far as I have heard him here, 

 only emits a few rich notes of his delightful song, but 

 does not pause and warble, as I have heard him in the 

 sister island. 



The song of the Tree Pipit is a simple, yet a very 

 attractive one ; and the Redstart, too, has a pleasing 

 ditty, which we are seldom privileged to hear in Ireland. 



On the whole, therefore, our island is much poorer in 

 singing birds than England ; nor have our Thrushes 

 and Blackbirds the opportunity afforded them of im- 

 proving themselves and enriching their own vocal trea- 

 sury from the songs of the Nightingale and Blackcap, 

 &c., of which we find their English brethren making 

 good use. 



Since childhood I have been in the habit of noting the 

 bird voices around me, and, looking back over the long 

 years, three of these voices or songs always recur to my 

 memory as the happiest and most remarkable of all my 

 experiences. The first was when, a good many years 

 ago, I heard for the first time the Blackcap sing near the 

 Suspension Bridge, Clifton. The plaintive and lovely 

 trills with which the song concluded are still in my ears. 

 The second was when with my boy on the Norfolk 

 Broads, at Horsey, near Martham, we heard the voices 

 of countless Sedge Warblers, like tiny bells, as they 



