6 WILD BIRDS 



of the sound. This is not so with the human voice. 

 Environment often counts nothing in the song of 

 a great singer. Everything here depends on the 

 quality of the sound. The great appeal is to the 

 ear. 



But the best blackbird I ever heard was not our 

 English bird it was the Moorish blackbird. Wan- 

 dering in the Atlas one day in spring, I heard a 

 string of notes, indescribable in sweetness, coming 

 from the infinite ancient tangle of a jackal-haunted 

 dell. Elfin notes surely from some elfin singer of 

 that African forest ! I think I shall remember that 

 blackbird when I have forgot all the others I have 

 heard. 



FAERY-FINE 



In the underwood of three or four years' growth 

 I found myself among a full score of garden warblers, 

 some of them in full song ; whilst around me were 

 nightingales and whitethroats ; but no blackcaps 

 and no lesser whitethroats. I think the garden- 

 warblers had just reached this spot, and were 

 settling down to nesting quarters there. Listening 

 once more to the garden warbler at close quarters, 

 I am sure it is not the blackcap's equal as a singer. 

 The blackcap, singing in earnest, does not confuse 

 his notes, never scamps his song, never rushes 

 through it as a garden warbler does. He picks out 

 the notes with finer taste, and throws them into the 

 air with more judgment. It is here alone the black- 

 cap easily excels the garden warbler. 



