BIRDS AT THEIR BE^T 29 



forbears had known and listened to all their 

 lives long ; and my imagination was fired by 

 all that had been said of their charm, not 

 indeed by frigid ornithologists, but by a long 

 succession of great poets, from Chaucer down 

 to those of our own time. Hearing them thus 

 emotionally their notes became permanently 

 impressed on my mind, and I found myself the 

 happy possessor of a large number of sound- 

 images representing the bird language of two 

 widely separated regions. 



To return to the main point — ^the durabiUty 

 of the impressions both of sight and sound. 



In order to get a more satisfactory idea of the 

 number and comparative strength or vividness 

 of the images of twenty-six years ago remaining 

 to me after so long a time than I could by merely 

 thinking about the subject, I drew up a fist of 

 the species of birds observed by me in the two 

 adjoining districts of La Plata and Patagonia. 

 Against the name of each species the surviving 

 sight- and sound-impressions were set down ; but 

 on going over this first fist and analysis, fresh 

 details came to mind, and some images which 

 had become dimmed all at once grew bright 



