108 BIRD LANGUAGE 



There shall we dwell in love 

 With the lark and the dove, 

 Cuckoo and cornrail, 

 Feast on the bearded snail, 

 Worm and gilded fly ; 

 Drink of the crystal rill 

 Winding adown the hill 

 Never to dry. 



With glee, with glee, with glee, 

 Cheer up, cheer up, cheer up here ! 

 Nothing to harm us, then sing merrily, 

 Sing to the loved one whose nest is near. 

 Qui, qui, queen quip : 

 Tiurru, tiurru, chipiwi : 

 Tootee, tootee, chin-choo : 

 Chirri, chirri, chooee : 

 Quin, qui, qui.' 



It happened lately that, while I was at leisurely work 

 in a woodland, there kept running in my head a nonsense 

 rhyme which is, or used to be, sung by children in Bowden 

 parish, Roxburghshire. 



' Tillieloot, tillieloot, tillieloot o' Bowden ! 

 Oor cat 's kittled in Archie's wig, 

 Three o' them naked and ane o' them clad. 

 Tillieloot, tillieloot, tillieloot o' Bowden ! ' 



Vainly I tried to dismiss the tiresome jingle, when 

 suddenly a thrush struck up the very echo of it. ' Tillie- 

 loot, tillieloot! ' the words fitted the music exactly. Could 

 this ancient rhyme have been an attempt to translate the 

 bird's immemorial melody ? Perhaps : but Heaven help 

 anybody who gets the strain in his head as I have 

 done. 



Bechstein, who knew more about cage-birds than about 

 their free kindred, devised a system of recording their 

 song, which, applied by Mr. Witchell to the strain of a 

 nightingale, produced the following uncouth result 



