152 , BIEDS AND BIRDS. 



or stone into the bushes, and away it goes again iu 

 full song. We have but one real nocturnal songster, 

 and that is the mocking-bird. One can see how this 

 habit might increase among the birds of a long-set- 

 tled country like England. With sounds and voices 

 about them, why should they be silent too? The 

 danger of betraying themselves to their natural ene- 

 mies would be less than in our woods. 



That their birds are more quarrelsome and pugna- 

 cious than ours I think evident. Our thrushes are 

 especially mild-mannered, but the missel-thrush is 

 very bold and saucy, and has been known to fly in 

 the face of persons who have disturbed the sitting 

 bird. No jay nor magpie nor crow can stand before 

 him. The Welsh call him master of the coppice, 

 and he welcomes a storm with such a vigorous and 

 hearty song that in some countries he is known as 

 storm-cock. He sometimes kills the young of other 

 birds and eats eggs, a very unthrushlike trait. 

 The whitethroat sings with crest erect, and attitudes 

 of warning and defiance. The hooper is a great 

 bully ; so is the greenfinch. The wood-grouse 

 now extinct I believe has been known to attack 

 people in the woods. And behold the grit and hard- 

 ihood of that little emigrant or exile to our shores, 

 the English sparrow. Our birds have their tilts and 

 spats also ; but the only really quarrelsome members 

 in our family are confined to the fly-catchers, as 

 the kingbird, and great-crested fly-catcher. None o 

 mr song-birds are bullies. 



