96 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



SILENCE AND SONG. 



From their first entry into the world the young 

 linnets utter no note that is not musical, though the 

 same cannot be said for the other youngsters who 

 add their voices to the summer chorus. Later, when 

 the last broods have been launched from their nests, 

 a general hush falls upon the country so far as bird- 

 music is concerned. The season's rivalries are over, 

 and the yellow-hammer is almost alone in continuing 

 to repeat his simple song, as though he could not 

 help it. Later many of our songsters commence to 

 sing again. The starling and the thrush quickly 

 weary of silence ; and the skylark seldom needs more 

 than a burst of sunshine after cloud at any season to 

 send him aloft quivering with music to his feather- 

 tips. But for a brief period about harvest-time the 

 melodies of bird-land are few indeed, though there is 

 noise enough in the calls and alarm-notes of the 

 gathering flocks of gregarious birds. And it is 

 interesting to note the connection between the gre- 

 garious habit and the habit of making a noise. Some 

 of our finest songsters are birds which live solitarily 

 or in pairs, according to the season ; but, except 

 when rivalry induces song, or when, for a few weeks, 

 anxiety for and care of their young prompt them to 

 use alarm-notes and call-notes, they are almost abso- 

 lutely silent. Gregarious birds, on the other hand, 

 are hardly ever quiet They cannot hop from one 

 twig to another without a " tweet " or a twitter, to let 

 the others know their whereabouts, nor can they view 

 the approach of any potential danger without outcry 

 of warning to the rest. 



