154 IMPRESSIONS OF SOME ENGLISH BIRDS. 



suggest. On the moors I also saw the curlew, and 

 shall never forget its wild, musical call. 



Nearly all the British bird-voices have more of a 

 burr in them than ours have. Can it be that, like 

 the people, they speak more from the throat ? It is 

 especially noticeable in the crow tribe in the rook, 

 the jay, the jackdaw. The common crow, or rook, 

 has a hoarse, thick caw not so clearly and roundly 

 uttered as that of our crow. The swift has a wheezy, 

 catarrhal squeak, in marked contrast to the cheery 

 chipper of our swift. In Europe the chimney-swal- 

 low builds in barns, and the barn-swallow builds in 

 chimneys. The barn-swallow, as we would call it - 

 chimney-swallow, as it is called there is much the 

 same in voice, color, form, flight, etc., as our bird, 

 while the swift is much larger than our chimney- 

 swallow and has a forked tail. The martlet, answer- 

 ing to our cliff-swallow, is not so strong and ruddy a 

 looking bird as our species, but it builds much the 

 same and has a similar note. It is more plentiful 

 than our swallow. I was soon struck with the fact 

 that in the main the British song-birds lead up to 

 and culminate in two species, namely in the lark and 

 the nightingale. In these two birds all that is char- 

 acteristic in the other songsters is gathered up and 

 carried to perfection. They crown the series. Nearly 

 all the finches and pipits seem like rude studies and 

 sketches of the sky-lark, and nearly all the warblers 

 and thrushes point to the nightingale ; their powers 

 have fully blossomed in her. There is nothing in 



