48 Oxford: Spring and Early Summer. 



white breast, but is a very little larger, and sings 

 a very different song, which is unique among all 

 British birds. Beginning with a high and toler- 

 ably full note, he drops it both in force and 

 pitch in a cadence short and sweet, as though he 

 were getting exhausted with the effort ; for that 

 it is a real effort to him and all his slim and 

 tender relations, no one who watches as well as 

 listens can have a reasonable doubt. This 

 cadence is often perfect, by which I mean that 

 it descends gradually, not of course on the notes 

 of our musical scale, by which no birds in their 

 natural state would deign to be fettered, but 

 through fractions of one or perhaps two of our 

 tones, and without returning upwards at the end ; 

 but still more often, and especially, as I fancy, 

 after they have been here a few weeks, they take 

 to finishing with a note nearly as high in pitch as 

 that with which they began. 1 This singular song 

 is heard in summer term in every part of the 

 Parks, and in the grass beneath the trees there 



1 The song ceases about mid-June, and is not renewed till 

 August : it is then usually so wanting in force as to be hardly 

 recognizable. See Note B. at end of Volume. 



