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 : 



" 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 dweL." 



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 

 /olubility. I heard many bright, animated notes 

 Hid many harsh ones, but few that were melodious, 



