MY FAVOURITE SONG BIRDS 75 



I would strongly impress upon the reader desirous of knowing 

 birds, and our Summer migrants in particular, the desirability 

 of becoming intimately acquainted with their varied utterances. 

 Real success will only come by constant practice and unlimited 

 patience. It seems a hopeless task at first, but I have noticed 

 how even young children, not yet in their teens, learn to recognise 

 a few of the more familiar songs of birds, to the utter consterna- 

 tion of their less fortunate schoolmates, who regard the whole 

 thing as hopeless confusion. 



To write down even a bare list of favourite song birds is more 

 difficult than I imagined at the outset, as I find, on reflection, 

 that every note uttered makes a strong appeal to my sense of 

 hearing, linking up, as it so often does, some old association of 

 long ago. Naturally enough, my favourite song birds are those 

 with whom, for the best part of the year, I am brought into daily 

 contact. My house, situate on a pre-Roman road known as 

 the Icknield Way, is bounded on the North side by a fine 

 wooded area known as Norton Common. 



With living fences to divide the gardens, the first garden city 

 of Letchworth is a more pleasant place in which to reside than 

 any other with which I am acquainted, and, although we are 

 planting and planning for posterity, there is much present-day 

 enjoyment in which all who will may participate. 



Thus, I am more or less surrounded by bird-life all through 

 the year, and my little garden, as I reveal at a later stage in my 

 story (Chapter XV.), attracts an abundance of wild creatures, 

 furred, feathered, and otherwise. 



Perhaps I should give pride of place among my favourite 

 song birds to a visitor from the far South, because, at the best 

 season of the year, and under the happiest conditions, he pours 

 out his little heart to me within earshot of my study the live- 

 long day. This individual Blackcap I have come to recognise, 

 after a life's experience among birds in the field, as the greatest 

 musician of them all. One sees and hears certain birds during 

 one's rambles under the best conditions, and this Blackcap, 

 which rears its brood within sight of my homestead, is without 

 doubt the most remarkable song bird to which I have ever been 

 introduced. It is an inconspicuous species, delighting in thick 

 brambles and thorns, and is dressed in a sober uniform of grey, 

 with (in the male) a jet black head. 



Let the reader try to imagine one individual bird which is 

 able to utter in whole, or part, the songs of the Blackbird, Song 



