WILD BIRDS THROUGH THE YEAR 103 



rattler the wren follows with its bubbling song of 

 jollity. It matters little to the wren whether it has 

 a nest or not. It enjoys the sound of its own voice 

 it is not humanising birds to say this. 



But now I have added to my list of bird singers 

 at the August dawn a performer new to me at this 

 hour and month, and delightful. One morning 

 in early August I heard, before the wren sang, some 

 low little mutterings that sounded to me rather like 

 the soliloquy of one of the warblers. Lesser white- 

 throats nested in the hedge opposite my window in 

 May, and I thought this might be the male bird in 

 song again after the flight of the young. The lesser 

 whitethroat does sing sometimes in the low key after 

 the young have flown. I went to the open window 

 and looked for the singer ; I would wish to sleep 

 with window wide open through the year, and no 

 curtains, the air rarely tasting so sweet as in the 

 blind hours and in the grey of the dawn. The war- 

 bler could not be seen. I went back to bed, and the 

 song began anew, and this time I knew it as a stolen 

 passage from the wren which had now struck up. 



The mysterious little musician sang again next 

 morning, and though I never caught sight of him, 

 I knew later it was a pied wagtail. He wakes quite 

 as soon as the swallow in early August and sings as 

 a swallow sings on the roof. But the wagtail's song 

 is quite different from the swallow's. It is much 

 shorter and is not quick and babbled. 



