IMPRESSIONS OF SOME ENGLISH BIRDS. 



THE foregoing chapter was written previous to my 

 last visit to England, and when my knowledge of the 

 British song-birds was mainly from report and not 

 from personal observation. I had heard the sky-lark, 

 and briefly the robin, and snatches of a few other 

 bird strains, while in that country in the autumn of 

 1871, but of the full spring and summer chorus, and 

 the merits of the individual songsters, I knew little 

 except through such writers as White, Broderip, and 

 Barrington. Hence, when I found myself upon Brit- 

 ish soil once more, and the birds in the height of 

 their May jubilee, I improved my opportunities, and 

 had very soon traced every note home. It is not a 

 long and difficult lesson ; there is not a great variety 

 of birds, and they do not hide in woods and remote 

 corners. You find them nearly all wherever your 

 walk leads you. And how they do sing ! how loud 

 and piercing their notes are ! Not a little of the 

 pleasure I felt arose from the fact that the birds sang 

 much as I expected them to, much as they ought to 

 have sung according to my previous views of their 

 merits and qualities, when contrasted with our own 

 songsters. 



