266 VOICES OF BIRDS. 



observe every year, in some tall hedge-row, or little, 

 quiet pasture, two or three of them, that have with- 

 drawn from the main flocks, and there associate 

 with the blackbird and the thrush. They do not 

 appear to be wounded birds, which from necessity 

 have sought concealment and quiet, but to have 

 retired from inclination ; and I have reason to ap- 

 prehend that these retreats are occasionally made 

 for the purpose of forming nests, though they are 

 afterwards abandoned without incubation; as I 

 have now before me the egg of a bird, which I be- 

 lieve to be that of a fieldfare, taken from a nest 

 somewhat like that formed by the song-thrush, in 

 1824. Its colour is uniform a rather pale blue; 

 it is larger than that of the thrush, obtuse at both 

 ends, and unlike any egg produced by our known 

 British birds. These retiring birds linger with us 

 late in the season, after all the main flights are de- 

 parted, as if reluctant to leave us ; but towards the 

 middle or end of April these stragglers unite, form 

 a small company, and take their flight. 



Rural sounds, the voices, the language of the 

 wild creatures^ as heard by the naturalist, belong 

 to, and are in concord with the country only. Our 

 sight, our smell, may perhaps be deceived for an 

 interval by conservatories, horticultural arts, and 

 bowers of sweets ; but our hearing can in no way 

 be beguiled by any semblance of what is heard in 

 the grove or the field. The hum, the murmur, the 



