THE LONELIER HOURS 27 



also past ; and as the deep glow fades into real darkness 

 only the babble of the sedge-warbler by the river recalls 

 the full nocturnal music of early June. The sedge-warbler 

 is peculiarly associated with July nights; not because it 

 does not sing as readily by night in earlier summer, but 

 because other singers are silent, and leave it to chant alone. 

 There is something strangely conversational in the sedge- 

 warbler's voluble monologues in the July night. They are 

 half scurrility like the bickering of the house-sparrow, and 



SEDGE-WARBLER 



half sheer beauty ; and the bird seems singing for itself for 

 company, in the loneliness of the night: The ear is struck 

 with notes that recall the day; it is the sedge-warbler 

 mimicking the cries of the birds that haunt the streamside 

 under the sun. Now comes the sharp call of the chaffinch, 

 now the sibilant signal of the water-wagtail, and presently 

 the chatter of the sparrows that practise fly-catching under 

 the noonday willows. A veil of sleep half dulls the sedge- 

 warbler's vigilance ; the song becomes a softer babble in 

 the reeds, like the song of a swallow on the weather-cock 



