INTRODUCTION. XuT 
Atlantic, stay a month in the British Islands, and then return, taking frequent country 
walks on both sides of the water, to become convinced that the other side has all the 
advantage in quantity of bird song. Let us grant that the quality is equal—though 
it is difficult to understand where in America the peer of the Nightingale can be found 
—let us grant that the United States possesses a list of Song Birds larger than that of 
the British Islands—all this does not prove that the quantity of bird song is greater. 
....In England bird voices are everywhere. The Chaff Finch is more abundant than 
the Sparrow save in the centers of cities, and his cheery notes can be heard at all 
times; the Robin Redbreast is common in suburb and village and is not chary of his 
voice; and as for the Sky Lark—it is hard to go anywhere in the country without 
hearing him. How is it here? Does any one pretend that bird song is common in the 
suburbs of our cities? Do Robins and Catbirds, our most plentiful singing birds, often 
treat us to a song as we sit on the piazza of our semi-detached cottage, or as we walk 
adown the tree-lined streets ?’ 
“It is not stated in the article from which the above is quoted where the writer’s 
observations in this country were made, except that a ‘Pennsylvania wood’ is incident- 
ally referred to. It is difficult to believe, however, that he can have had much, if any, 
experience with other portions of the country east of the Mississippi, for his comparisons 
certainly will not hold good for a large number of localities both east and west of the 
Alleghanies, however applicable they may be to the immediate vicinity of our larger 
Eastern cities. His comparison is also unfair in that, while questioning the existence 
in America of any ‘peer of the Nightingale,’ he neglected to inquire where, in England 
—or the rest of Europe for that matter—can be found even any approach to our 
Mockingbird, although since it is tacitly granted that in the two countries the quality 
of bird song ‘is equal,’ we can afford to pass this by. It may also be remarked that 
the comparative number of species which can. properly be ranked as songsters belonging 
to the United States east of the Mississippi River is about twice as great as that 
belonging to the entire extent of the British Islands, counting in each case every species 
the male of which utters notes peculiar to the breeding season, or, in other words, has 
a song, however rude. It is conceded by the writer to whom I have referred that the 
quality of their song is equal. Is there not, therefore, apparently some inconsistency 
in the statement that the United States is so greatly deficient in bird song as compared 
with England? Or, should the statement be true, is it not an anomaly which requires ‘ 
explanation? Although no explanation has, so far as I am aware, been attempted, the 
reason seems very obvious. In the first place, it would be almost impossible in most 
parts of thickly populated England, for a bird to sing without being heard -by human 
ears. In the second place—and what is by far the most important factor in the case— 
birds in England have for many generations been protected in numerous ways, until, in 
their almost absolute immunity from the perils to which they are in this country con- 
stantly exposed, a comparative large number have become accustomed to the society of 
man. Laws protecting all kinds of Song Birds, and their nests and eggs are there 
enforced with a strictness which is absolutely unknown in any portion of the United 
States; and, in the numerous carefully policed public parks and thoroughfares and 
extensive private grounds, which ample wealth and long cultivation have made a 
