186 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



suggests our bluebird, and has similar habits and 

 manners, though it is a much better musician. 



The European bird that corresponds to our robin 

 is the blackbird of which Tennyson sings : 



" O Blackbird, sing me something well ; 

 While all the neighbors shoot thee round 

 I keep smooth plats of fruitful ground 

 Where thou may'st warble, eat, and dwell." 



It quite startled me to see such a resemblance, to 

 see, indeed, a black robin. In size, form, flight, man- 

 ners, note, call, there is hardly an appreciable differ- 

 ence. The bird starts up with the same flirt of the 

 wings, and calls out in the same jocund, salutatory 

 way, as he hastens off. The nest of coarse mortar 

 in the fork of a tree, or in an out-building, or in the 

 side of a wall, is also the same. 



The bird I wished most to hear, namely, the night- 

 ingale, had already departed on its southern journey. 

 I saw one in the Zoological Gardens in London, and 

 took a good look at him. He struck me as bearing 

 a close resemblance to our hermit-thrush, with some- 

 thing in his manners that suggested the water-thrush 

 also. Carlyle said he first recognized its song from 

 the description of it in " Wilhelm Meister," and that 

 it was a " sudden burst," which is like the song of our 

 water-thrush. 



I have little doubt our songsters excel in melody, 

 while the European birds excel in profuseness and 

 volubility. I heard many bright, animated notes, 

 and many harsh ones, but few that were melodious. 



