BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 39 



it is most sweet — perhaps the sweetest of all. It is 

 true that there are thousands, nay, millions of things 

 — sights and sounds and perfumes — ^which are or 

 may be , described as sweet, so common is the 

 metaphor, and this too common use has perhaps 

 somewhat degraded it ; but in this case there is no 

 other word so well suited to describe the sensation 

 produced. 



The tree-pipit has a comparatively short song, 

 repeated, with some variation in the number and 

 length of the notes, at brief intervals. The opening 

 notes are thick or throaty, and similar in character 

 to the throat-notes of many other species in this 

 group, a softer sound than the throat-notes of the 

 skylark and woodlark, which they somewhat resemble. 

 The canary-like trills and thin piping notes, long 

 drawn out, which follow vary greatly in different 

 individuals, and in many cases the trills are omitted. 

 But the concluding notes of the song I am con- 

 sidering — which is only one note repeated again 

 and again — are clear and beautifully inflected, and 

 have that quality of sweetness, of lusciousness, I 

 have mentioned. The note is uttered with a down- 

 ward fall, more slowly and expressively at each 

 repetition, as if the singer felt overcome at the 

 sweetness of life and of his own expression, and 

 languished somewhat at the close ; its effect is like 

 that of the perfume of the honeysuckle, infecting 



