52 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



it. There are no striking variations, if now and then 

 there are low undernotes. It is just a wood-wild, 

 bold carol, with associations and surroundings that 

 delight us. 



But the song thrush has class. Here is something 

 that reminds us of the high training in science, the 

 painstaking practice of a master. The song thrush is 

 the professional the missel the amateur. The song 

 thrush has so much more than sweetness. He has 

 brilliant execution. Order, method, variation are in 

 his definite, clear-cut phrases. Even about some of 

 the less melodious expressions there is a suggestion of 

 polish and cultivation that alone would set the song 

 thrush near the top of the tree. Thus through a 

 week I have listened to a thrush pronouncing " chiko, 

 chiko, chiko " quickly, sharply, and so clearly that I 

 can easily syllable the passage. Not a very pretty 

 phrase it looks on paper, and in truth is not very 

 melodious in the singing. Yet there is class in this, 

 as in every other clear, orderly phrase of the song 

 thrush. And presently, when the practised thrush 

 perfects his famous " peebur, peebur, peebur " 

 phrase, we have beautiful melody added to masterly 

 execution. 



Song thrush duels in spring, like those of skylarks, 

 are fiery and short; but we may go into the fields 

 and see scores of encounters between skylarks to a 

 single one between song thrushes; a thrush duel is 

 not to be seen every day, even at this season, when 



