68 WILD NATURE IN STRATHEARN. 



imitator, and is often trained to repeat the 

 notes of other birds, but his own song does 

 not amount to much more than "Tweet, tweet, 

 tweet," or what Macgillivray describes as " Wee, 

 wee, wee, wee drucken Sowie," repeated over 

 and over again, which is rather tiresome, and 

 although I have heard them sing a short, pleasing 

 song, they are not great musicians. Tennyson 

 says: 



" Then as a little helpless, innocent bird, ' 

 That has but one plain passage of a few notes, 

 Will sing the simple passage o'er and o'er, 

 For all one April morning, till the ear 

 Wearies to hear it." 



When we hear of the Shilfa having " loud, 

 clear, melodious, flute-like, and penetrating " notes, 

 we suspect it is a trained bird that is referred 

 to. So with the doleful "Yite, yite, ye," or 

 " Deil, deil, deil tak' ye," or, as the English 

 have it, "A little bit of bread, and no che-e-e-se," 

 of the Yellow-Hammer, it hardly rises to a song. 



The Starling, a valuable ally to the farmer, 

 is a bird with a beautiful coat and crow-like 



