158 WILD BIRDS 



if the bird is caught and confined for a time, but on 

 the bird's release it will take back its natural tint. 

 This reminds one of the quick change of colour in 

 a rainbow trout. 



THE SCHOOL OF SONG 



As to the song of the thrush in early autumn 

 a lady tells me that in Winchester the birds there 

 were singing on September 28, during soaking rain, 

 whilst three days earlier a blackbird was crooning 

 a kind of under-song, broken and disconnected, 

 but sweet. Her notion is that the birds begin to 

 sing anew after they have moulted. A blackbird 

 singing in September, under-song or full song, is 

 new to me. It is probably a most fastidious singer 

 in autumn ; though I do not forget that until a 

 year or two ago I was quite an unbeliever in the 

 singing blackbird of early February ; many people, 

 however, wrote to tell me they had heard it 

 through that month, and one day I heard it myself. 



The song of the wild blackbird is, I should say, 

 quite uncommon in February, rare in autumn, and 

 in December and January almost unknown. Birds 

 do not always strike up anew after their late summer 

 or autumn moult. Thus the blackbird rarely does 

 so. But once the moult is ended and the bird is 

 feeling comfortable again, it is more likely to sing ; 

 and this is what may happen with the song-thrush 

 and the missel thrush. 



The list of English singing birds which sing only 

 during the spring and early summer is quite small 



