THE MARSH WARBLER'S MUSIC 209 



Listening to the marsh warbler at some distance 

 it seemed to me at first that he sang his own song 

 interspersed with imitations, that the borrowed songs 

 and phrases were selections which accorded best with 

 his own notes, so that the whole performance was like 

 one ever-varying melody. On a closer acquaintance I 

 found that the performance was mainly or nearly all 

 imitations in which the loud, harsh, and guttural sounds 

 were subdued and softened — that the mocker's native 

 silvery sweetness had in some degree been imparted to 

 all of them. The species whose songs, detached phrases, 

 and calls I recognized were the swallow, sparrow, 

 goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, redpoll, linnet, reed- 

 bunting, blackbird (its chuckle only), throstle, missel- 

 thrush (its alarm or anger cry), blackcap, willow-wren, 

 robin, redstart, whinchat, yellow wagtail, tree-pipit, 

 skylark, and partridge — its unmistakable call, but 

 subdued and made musical. There were also some 

 notes and phrases that seemed perfect copies from 

 the nightingale, but I would not say that they were 

 imitations as there were no nightingales at that spot, 

 and I came to the listening in a sceptical spirit, quite 

 resolved not to believe that any note or phrase or 

 song could be an imitation unless the bird supposed 

 to be imitated could be found in the vicinity. Another 

 bird I could not find in the place was the grasshopper 

 warbler, yet one day one of the birds I listened to pro- 

 duced what seemed to me a most perfect imitation of 

 its reeling performance. 



But how, the reader will ask, could the marsh 

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