THE MARSH WARBLER'S MUSIC 213 



picious that they will not comport themselves as they 

 do immediately we are out of sight and mind. What 

 a contrast in this respect is there between such species 

 as the stonechat and goldcrest ! One is always watch- 

 ing us, always anxious, and refuses not only to go on 

 with his love-making or nest-building but even refuses 

 to sing if we are there ; while to the other our presence 

 is no more than that of a rock or tree. I was delighted 

 to find that the marsh warbler was more like the 

 last than the first, that he went on with his feeding, 

 wooing, nest-building, his feud with his rivals, or with 

 the neighbouring cock who from time to time ventured 

 to intrude on his little dominion, and above all with his 

 beautiful singing, just as though I had not been there 

 at all. My greatest pleasure was to mark a spot which 

 a pair of the birds had selected as their own and to go 

 and settle myself down in the very middle of the 

 sacred ground. There the cock would quickly come to 

 me, evidently recognizing in me a living creature of 

 some kind — a big animal with the faculty of loco- 

 motion, and at first he would appear to be a little 

 anxious about the safety of his nest, but after a few- 

 minutes the trouble would vanish from his little volatile 

 mind and he would be all freedom and gladness and 

 melody, with transitory fits of rage and other emotions, 

 as before. On these occasions I sometimes had one 

 singing almost continuously for several minutes to half 

 an hour within a dozen yards of where I sat. At such 

 times his strains sounded louder but no less sweet than 

 when heard at a distance of forty of fifty yards. On 



