RUSTIC SOUNDS 9 



quail, who should be a wholesome lesson to all 

 wrynecks. I should Kke to hear him as Schubert 

 has him : 



" Sitzend im Griinen 

 Mit Halmen umhiillt," 



and singing "Lobe Gott" all day in the rhythm 

 with which the oboe praises God in the Pastoral 

 Symphony. 



Another bird, whom I take for a contented 

 fellow, is the green woodpecker, for he goes through 

 life laughing, but I am not quite sure that I 

 should like his taste in jokes. He is always 

 associated in my mind with a passage in a letter of 

 my father's : " At last I fell fast asleep on the grass, 

 and awoke with a chorus of birds singing around 

 me ; and squirrels running up the trees, and some 

 woodpeckers laughing, and it was as pleasant and 

 rural a scene as ever I saw, and I did not care one 

 penny how any of the beasts or birds had been 

 formed."^ 



There are many noises rather than notes which 

 are most pleasant to hear. The invisible indust- 

 rious corncrake, whose persistent cry comes firom 

 nowhere and everywhere at once. The harsh 

 warning of the jay who seems to say "Man ! man ! " 

 as he skulks off when his wood is invaded. The 

 rough noise of the ox-eye sharpening his little saw, 

 and many others. 



Then I must not forget the noise of birds in 

 flocks, ranging from the familiar wrangle of sparrows 

 noisily going to roost, to the mysterious sound of 



^ Life and Letters, Vol. ii., p. 114. 



