At Home with Wild Nature 



curious entries in regard to song birds and their habits 

 of borrowing notes from each other. In Surrey the song 

 thrush will embody the rather raucous call notes of 

 the French or red-legged partridge in its repertoire, 

 whilst in Aberdeenshire the low, musical voice of the 

 ringed plover is not infrequently borrowed. 



Both blackbirds and song thrushes in West Surrey 

 now imitate the notes of the curlews that have within 

 recent years resorted to that part of the county to breed, 

 and in the spring of the year 1919 a member of the 

 former species always commenced his song with three 

 notes from a tune he had recently heard Canadian 

 soldiers whistling in and round a training camp close at 

 hand. 



Blackbirds and throstles both occasionally sing 

 whilst on the wing. I have heard the latter holding 

 forth whilst standing on a chimney-pot from which a 

 volume of smoke, to which he had his tail turned, was 

 rising, and all this with plenty of suitable trees within 

 fifty yards of him. Why such a bird should select such 

 a position it is impossible to understand. Some years 

 ago I found sanctuary in my garden for the most 

 original male bird of this species it has ever been my 

 pleasure to study. He habitually sang whilst hopping 

 about on the lawn searching for worms for a family of 

 chicks in a laurel bush a few yards away. Whether it 

 was a case of " song lightening toil " or a little heart 

 bubbling over with uncontrollable happiness I could 

 never determine. 



It is popularly supposed that birds sing, call, and do 



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