136 ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SONG-BIRDS. 



England hears more bird-music throughout the year 

 than a dweller in this country, and that which, in 

 some respects, is of a superior order. 



In the first place, there is not so much of it lost 

 " upon the desert air," upon the wild, unlistening sol- 

 itudes. The English birds are more domestic and 

 familiar than ours ; more directly and intimately as- 

 sociated with man ; not, as a class, so withdrawn and 

 lost in tii3 ,-^reat void of the wild and the unreclaimed. 

 England is ike a continent concentrated all the 

 waste land, the barren stretches, the wildernesses, 

 left out. The birds are brought near together and 

 near to man. Wood birds here are house and garden 

 birds there. They find good pasturage and protec- 

 tion everywhere. A land of parks, and gardens, 

 and hedge-rows, and game preserves, and a climate 

 free from violent extremes what a stage for the 

 birds, and for enhancing the effect of their songs ! 

 How prolific they are, how abundant ! Ii our song- 

 sters were hunted and trapped by bird-fanciers and 

 others, as the lark, and goldfinch, and mavis, etc., are 

 in England, the race would soon become extinct. 

 Then, as a rule, it is probably true that the British 

 birds, as a class, have more voice than ours have, 

 or certain qualities that make their songs more strik- 

 ing and conspicuous, such as greater vivacity and 

 strength. They are less bright in plumage, but 

 more animated in voice. They are not so recently 

 out of the woods, and their strains have not that elu- 

 siveness and plain tiveness that ours have. They sing 



