96 BIRDS AND MAN 



lasts until September ; though I may not find it 

 very easy to give a reason for the preference. 



It comforts me a little in this inquiry to 

 remember that Wordsworth preferred the 

 stock-dove (of all birds) to the nightingale — 

 that "creature of ebuUient heart." Now the 

 books tell us that the stock-dove has a grunting 

 note. The poet was a little shaky in his orni- 

 thology at times ; but if we take it that he 

 meant the ring-dove, his preference might still 

 seem very strange to some. Perhaps it is not 

 so very strange after aU. 



If we take any one of the various qualities 

 which we have agreed to consider highest in 

 bird-music, we find that the wood wren compares 

 badly with his fellow -vocalists — that, measured 

 by this standard, he is a very inferior singer. 

 Thus, in variety, he cannot compare with the 

 thrush, garden- warbler, sedge- warbler, and others; 

 in brilliance and purity of sound with the night- 

 ingale, blackcap, etc. ; in strength and joyousness 

 with the skylark ; in mellowness with the black- 

 bird ; in sprightUness with the goldfinch and 

 chaffinch ; in sweetness with the woodlark, tree- 

 pipit, reed-warbler, the chats and wagtails, and so 



