SUMMER VOICES. 45 



makes a curious job of it. Where numbers of 

 wood-pigeons and turtle-doves are about, their coo- 

 roo-coos would be monotonous unless sharper and 

 clearer voices broke in. The finest time to hear 

 summer voices is after a thunderstorm when all is 

 over. Whilst the storm is gathering, the birds seek 

 shelter and are mute ; directly the sky clears, we all 

 know how they break out into full song ; even the 

 wren holds forth, and for his size he is a first-rate 

 singer. 



Little by little, in some instances by great and 

 violent alterations — -we mean so far as the furred and 

 feathered creatures are concerned — their voices are 

 no longer heard in what at one time were their 

 favourite haunts. This is the necessary outcome 

 of building, and the reclaiming of waste lands for 

 that purpose. As the population increases, folks 

 must have living room. 



