THE RING-OUZEL AS A SONGSTER 139 



thrushes and the ring-ouzel, and have been lost in the 

 blackbird. I have been told that the blackbird does 

 occasionally emit the low robin-like wailing note 

 when its nest is approached, but have never heard 

 it myself. 



One would like to listen to and compare the sounds 

 emitted by all the thrushes of the world — the spotted 

 ground thrushes (Geochicla), supposed to be the 

 parental form ; the typical thrushes (Turdus) ; and the 

 blackbirds (Merula). Ornithologists pay little or no 

 attention to the language of birds when considering 

 the question of evolution, but here it might help us to 

 a right conclusion of the question whether the black- 

 birds are an offshoot of the typical thrushes, or sprang 

 independently from the ground thrushes. In studying 

 the language of the blackbird alone one might spend 

 half a lifetime very pleasantly. In the development 

 of their vocal organs they stand highest among birds, 

 and they have a world-wide distribution, numbering 

 about seventy species. What more fascinating object 

 in life for a wandering Englishman who desires to see 

 all lands, who loves birds and above all others the 

 " garden ouzel " of his home ? A missionary writes 

 that there is no living thing in Samoa which gives him 

 so much the home feeling as this bird — its blackbird, 

 Merula samoensis. The English spring is recalled to 

 another in Ceylon by the ouzel of that country. Yet 

 another wanderer in Somaliland is delightfully re- 

 minded of home by the native blackbird. And doubt- 

 less others have had the same feeling produced in them 



