THROUGH THE YEAR 7 



I think that if the garden warbler were more 

 deliberate, there would be nought to choose between 

 the songs. Both have the true wood-wild melody. 

 The garden warbler at his best has several notes 

 which equal the blackcap's, only their effect is hurt 

 by haste. In these best notes the timbre sounds 

 to me just like that of the blackcap : they are strong 

 and pure, and lovely in their freshness. 



These singing garden warblers are good to watch, 

 too. They have a way, which is common to blackcaps 

 and white throats, of suddenly diving almost straight 

 down out of the sapling oak or ash, in which they 

 have been singing, into the brushwood and under- 

 growth. The action is distinctive with warblers. 



The form of the garden warbler is very refined. 

 There is no podginess about it. The garden warbler 

 is a slip of a bird, all grace and litheness. I know 

 that some may make light of these as mere refine- 

 ments of fancy, and will tell me that a hedge sparrow 

 is built on lines as fine as a blackcap or garden 

 warbler, and is as much " a slip of a bird " and as 

 full of grace and litheness ; but I cannot think it. 

 There may be no proving that these summer warblers 

 are more faery-fine than hedge sparrow or yellow- 

 hammer ; but the eye will be master in a measuring 

 like this. 



A LIGHTNING SPIN 



The black swishing swifts are back again over 

 our Southern villages and waters by the seventh of 

 May. Almost a week before this, in a high sun- 



