150 IMPRESSIONS OF SOME ENGLISH BIRDS. 



seem inferior to their own. They are much less loud 

 and vociferous, less abundant and familiar ; one needs 

 to woo them more ; they are less recently out of the 

 wilderness ; their songs have the delicacy and wild- 

 ness of most woodsy forms, and are as plaintive as 

 the whistle of the wind. They are not so happy a 

 race as the English songsters, as if life had more tri- 

 als for them, as doubtless it has in their enforced 

 migrations and in the severer climate with which 

 they have to contend. 



When one hears the European cuckoo he regrets 

 that he has ever heard a cuckoo clock. The clock 

 has stolen the bird's thunder ; and when you hear 

 the rightful owner, the note has a second-hand, artifi- 

 cial sound. It is only another cuckoo clock off there 

 on the hill or in the grove. Yet it is a cheerful call, 

 with none of the solitary and monkish character of 

 our cuckoo's note ; and, as it comes early in spring, I 

 can see how much it must mean to native ears. 



I found that the only British song-bird I had done 

 injustice to in my previous estimate was the wren. 

 It is far superior to our house-wren. It approaches 

 very nearly our winter wren, if it does not equal it. 

 Without hearing the two birds together it would be 

 impossible to decide which was the better songster. 

 Its strain has the same gushing, lyrical character, and 

 the shape, color, and manner of the two birds are 

 nearly identical. It is very common, sings every- 

 where, and therefore contributes much more to the 

 general entertainment than does our bird. Barring- 



