94



Mr. W. E. Teschemaker,



inter alia , that the cause of the song of the Accentor was the

defence of its roosting places. I must confess that Mr. E.

Kay Robinson’s views on bird-life are too profound for me ; in

fact they represent to me a series of problems more elusive than

those they claim to elucidate. I sing, myself, occasionally. Do I

sing because I fear someone may appropriate my roosting place ?

Certainly not, but because the mood takes me. In the same way

the song of the Accentor appears to me to be an expression of

himself and, if he sings in the winter it is because he takes a

cheerful view of life and, with his sound digestion, can keep

himself in excellent trim when other birds are starving. We

must recollect, in this connection, that the Accentor will sing in

a cage far removed from others of his race and further, when in

deference to a barbarous custom—uow-a-days, I am glad to say,

rare—his sight has been destroyed.


Before leaving th-e subject, let us note how sensitive and

modest is the singer—the true artistic temperament! ” He sings

a few bars and then pauses. If y^ou show by your sympathetic

demeanour that you appreciate his effort he will sing to you

again and }^et again. But, if you interrupt him, instantly he

slips away into covert and is seen no more.


It is quite true that the Accentor sings when he is com¬

pelled to settle any little difference with his neighbours—but his

song militant is not the same. Note also how these combats are

conducted. There is much shuffling of wings, much vitupera¬

tion, perhaps a few feathers floating on the breeze—but no blood¬

shed. After it is all over the combatants depart both carolling

gaily and both apparently equally pleased—in fact we might

describe these engagements, in the words of the immortal Mr.

Jorrocks, as “ the image of war with one-sixth part of its risk.”

They always remind me of those early Greek battles,*as narrated

by the venerable Thucydides, whereafter both sides used to retire

and set up a trophy of victory.


My third postulate will therefore be that the Accentor is the

most modest and sensible of birds.


At the end of March my Accentors commenced to build in

a small cupressus, and a pair of Chingolo Song Sparrows at the

same time selected the adjoining shrub. With some difficulty I



