THROUGH THE YEAR 39 



blackcap notes we know at home, but in these songs 

 was a phrase exactly like the thrush's at its prime. 

 Every one who knows well the thrush's song in 

 England knows that phrase which can be written 

 down now " chee-bur, chee-bur," now " pee-bur, 

 pee-bur," the accent marked on the first syllable, 

 " chee." I was in this Sicilian garden once or twice 

 a day for a week at a stretch. It lay within Palermo, 

 though once fairly amidst its splendid wealth of 

 blossom and fruit I could see nothing of the city. 

 Looking up, it seemed as if at almost every point 

 in this garden the glorious Monte Pellegrino, so huge 

 yet so ethereal, faced me ; its pure grey of the 

 tint of reindeer moss on a Norway f jeld being set 

 with finest effect against the azure and white of the 

 sky. 



It seemed alive with birds, this city garden. 

 I heard the nightingale there. The charming little 

 serin finches, so swift and shy, chivvied each other 

 in restless parties ; the great titmouse uttered with- 

 out end, just as it does in England in April, its whet- 

 stone note ; whilst the Sardinian warbler was making 

 ready to nest, and scolding the intruder after its 

 fretful fashion. 



But the birds that drew me most were those 

 that sang English blackcap songs, adding the 

 typical thrush phrase, " chee-bur, chee-bur," with 

 the expression precisely of the thrush. The garden 

 was such a thicket of leaf and bloom I could not get 

 a good view of the singer, and I wondered whether 

 it was really a blackcap singing or some warbler 



