io6 NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



toned note " kew, kew, kew," which you have so 

 often heard in the woods without knowing whence 

 it came ; and now perhaps the source of these loud 

 sounds is so near that the lift of the wings with 

 each note can be clearly seen. But the cloud has 

 passed, the hawk has gone, all is well once more, 

 and the bird sings. Is that a song ? " Sip, sip, 

 sip, sisi, sisisisisisi." It is but the repetition of one 

 cry, and in this respect it may be compared with 

 the barbarous burring of a nightjar or the crowing 

 of a fowl, although there is a wonderful accelerando 

 movement in it. The singer, lacking the instinct 

 or the mental initiative to advance from the simple 

 to the complex, has adopted a more obvious mode 

 of expressing his ardour, and this is by such an 

 agitation of the whole frame as suggests a frenzy 

 of passion. In this suggestiveness the bird excels 

 even our best singers. The nightingale himself, 

 content to reiterate a splendid tone, remains almost 

 still throughout each strain, but the woodwren's 

 every fibre trembles in his song nay, the bird 

 quits his perch and sings while passing from 

 branch to branch. It is at this moment that you 

 should see him at a short distance, when with 



