30 WILD LIFE IN' CHINA. 



Teesdale and Mr. H. T. Wade for their song by the sea-wall. 

 Would that they were common on the Race-course! David 

 describes five varieties of larks in China and, as has been 

 said before, the skylark itself is one of our most common 

 winter birds. Then, however, there is not that compelling 

 force of love which makes the music of spring and summer. 

 It would be a most interesting undertaking to enquire on the 

 equator into the reason why there are no tropical songsters 

 to compare with our nightingale, lark, thrush, and blackbird. 

 Bird-lovers are by no means at one respecting the compara- 

 tive excellence of these four rivals. Many declare the night- 

 ingale King of all, but those who are as enamoured of the 

 melody of the thrush reply that this is merely because at night 

 the nightingale has the whole concert room to himself and 

 that the surrounding darkness adds mystery as well as beauty. 

 Others again give the first place in their ai¥ection to the lark. 

 He alone sings on the wing. I love them all. But I have 

 heard thousands of thrushes for one nightingale, for even in 

 England, Exythacus Litscinia, the sweet singer of the gloom, 

 is very local in his habitation. Perhaps London maj' be 

 said to be the centre of his English habitat. In the north 

 he is unknown. But the thrush is well-nigh ubiquitous. More 

 than a dozen varieties are known in China, but these, too, 

 do not, as a rule, nest in this neighbourhood, and so we 

 miss their song. There are several specimens in the Museum 

 which will amply repay a visit. Our most noticable local 

 representative of the genus Turdiis is the blackbird, and 

 given shelter enough, he is willing to do his verj^ best to fill 

 the gap. Turdiis Merula, Menila Sinensis, Meriila Maiidarina, 

 the blackbird, black ousel, or merle — those are a few of the 

 names from which his friends may take their choice when 

 they wish — ^which should be often — to speak of him. I was 

 not a little surprised a few days ago to find that he has 

 enemies outside the army of gardeners and fruit growers. 

 The writer of "Birds of the Norfolk Broads" finds nothing 

 too severe, too cutting, or too abusive to say of him. Onh' 

 one of his many characteristics is praised — his audacity. 

 But I have a shrewd suspicion that were Mr. Emerson out 

 here he would tell another tale. Instead of a curse he would 

 breathe a blessing: his abuse would turn to praise, his detrac- 

 tion to exultation. For with us the blackbird as a singer 

 has no rival. Mr. Emerson says he is voracious: all birds 

 are voracious; their hotter blood ensures a more rapid diges- 

 tion than ours, and their one great business is to eat. Did 

 I not the other day make a calculation — which ran into 

 hundredweights, respecting the amount that would be re- 

 quired by a heavy man per day, if he could eat like a snipe? 

 AH birds are alike in this respect, why stigmatize Merula 



