444 THE THRUSH FAMILY 



The ranges of the two species overlap in parts of Germany and 

 Russia, though here they appear to occur in quite different localities. 1 



That they differ in the call- and alarm-notes is certain, but 

 wherein exactly the difference lies appears to be still a matter of 

 doubt. Most writers, following Naumann, ascribe to the Northern 

 form two notes syllabled as "fflock" and "arrr" corresponding to the 

 well-known soft "weed" "weet," or "weep!" and the croaking "krrrr" 

 of our species. Later observers, to whom it has occurred to consult 

 the bird itself, report that its usual note is "weeht," or "weefist" there- 

 fore very like the ( 'weet" of our nightingale, but sharper and higher 

 pitched. 2 The same distinction appears to apply to the croaks of the 

 two species, if one may apply a term of such unmusical denotation 

 to any sound uttered by musicians so great. Yet " croak " it is, and 

 the faithful biographer cannot but record the fact. And the fact has 

 comfort in it, for it brings these immortal birds down to our human 

 level. It shows them not exempt from the failings that sometimes, 

 no doubt, beset even a prima donna, whose voice, soul-stirring and 

 entrancing on the stage, may yet, behind the scenes or in the privacy 

 of domestic life, assume tones that might well shock a self-respecting 

 nightingale as much as his croak shocks us, especially when he 

 interrupts (as I have heard him do when alarmed) some fine passage, 

 in his song to give it utterance. 



The songs of the two species differ enough to make it impossible 

 to mistake one for the other. Which is the better is a question that 

 each will answer according to his individual taste or the standard of 

 judgment he adopts. The song of the Northern form or " Sprosser," 

 as the Germans call it, lacks the soft, lulling, long-drawn notes of 

 our Western form, but according to Dr. Hartert it surpasses ours in 

 its depth and force, and in the beauty of its oft-recurring bell-like 



1 F. C. B. Jourdain (in litt.). There are two other forms, both breeding in Asia, which 

 are classed by Dr. Hartert as sub-species of our nightingale under the name of Luscinia 

 megarhynchos golzii, and L. in. africana. (Op. cit., p. 735.) 



2 E. Hartert, op. cit., p. 737; Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, i. ; Dresser and Sharpe, 

 Birds of Europe. 



