IMPRESSIONS OF SOME ENGLISH BIRDS. 147 



and but rarely in other places in Scotland, but in the 

 south of England it leads the choir. Its voice can 

 be heard above all others. But one would never 

 suspect it to be a thrush. It has none of the flute- 

 like melody and serene, devotional quality of our 

 thrush strains. It is a shrill whistling polyglot. Its 

 song is much after the manner of that of our brown 

 thrasher, made up of vocal attitudes and poses. It 

 is easy to translate its strain into various words or 

 short ejaculatory sentences. It sings till the dark- 

 ness begins to deepen, and I could fancy what the 

 young couple walking in the gloaming would hear 

 from the trees overhead. " Kiss her, kiss her ; do it, 

 do it; be quick, be quick; stick her to it, stick her 

 to it ; that was neat, that was neat ; that will do," 

 with many other calls not so explicit, and that might 

 sometimes be construed as approving nods or winks. 

 Sometimes it has a staccato whistle. Its performance 

 is always animated, loud, and clear, but never, to my 

 ear, melodious, as the poets so often have it. Even 

 Burns says, 



" The mavis mild and mellow." 



Drayton hits it when he says, 



"The throstle with shrill sharps," etc. 



Ben Jonson's " lusty throstle " is still better. It is a 

 song of great strength and unbounded good cheer ; 

 it proceeds from a sound heart and a merry throat. 

 There is no touch of plaintiveness or melancholy in 

 it ; it is as expressive of health and good digestion as 

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