THE REDBREAST 441 



was rarely, if ever, to be heard. Further, it was not the full-toned 

 song of the adult, but a low warbled soliloquy, very sweet neverthe- 

 less, and often uttered as the little performer sat confidingly perched 

 close by, his beak slightly open, his bright black eyes and soft little 

 ball of a body making a charming picture of peaceful repose and 

 content. Next moment, however, the same winsome creature might 

 become a feathered fury grappling with his neighbour, or posing 

 defiantly in front of him, uttering the self-same warbled notes. Such 

 is the demoralising effect of an unsound economic system ! 



The full song of the adult robin is one of the most beautiful 

 uttered by birds. Not only has it a " peculiar tender pathos," but it 

 is possibly more varied than any other. "Listen to him," writes 

 Mr. Warde Fowler, " intently for a quarter of an hour, and you shall 

 hardly hear the same phrase twice over." 1 It is in autumn and 

 winter that this song is most welcome ; it seems then as much the 

 voice of the fallen leaf and the leafless bough as the song of the 

 dipper is the voice of the mountain beck, or the far wild call of the 

 grouse is that of the moorland. 



Apart from the song, the robin has certain well-marked notes. 

 One is the "ptseee" high pitched, long drawn, plaintive, and sometimes 

 so penetrating that it causes an actually painful sensation in one's 

 ear. It is used to express the more intense feelings of anger or fear. 

 It is frequently heard in the breeding-season when the birds are 

 alarmed by a too near approach to the nest or young, and also 

 frequently in winter as a cry of alarm or menace. The note has ap- 

 peared to me to be simply a later modification of the call-note of the 

 young for food the strident "ptweep /" or "ptseepf" The latter in a form 

 slightly modified, if at all, corresponds possibly to the call-note uttered 

 on migration, and described by Naumann as a shrill " tschrietsch." 2 

 When the birds are in the excited condition that precedes migration, 

 they are heard uttering the familiar " tik ! " which, rapidly repeated, has 



1 Summer Studies of Birds and Books, 1895, p. 162. 



2 Vogel Mitteleuropas, i. p. 26. 



3L 



