A WOOD WREN AT WELLS 101 



or Shakespeare had singled it out for a few words 

 of praise. 



It is also probably the fact that those who 

 are not students, or close observers of bird life, 

 seldom know more than a very few of the most 

 common species ; and that when they hear a note 

 that pleases them they set it down to one of the 

 half-dozen or three or four songsters whose names 

 they remember, I met with an amusing instance 

 of this common mistake at a spot in the west of 

 England, where I visited a castle on a hiU, and 

 was shown over the beautiful but steep grounds 

 by a stout old dame, whose breath and temper 

 were alike short. It was a bright morning in 

 May, and the birds were in fuU song. As we 

 walked through the shrubbery a blackcap burst 

 into a torrent of wild heart -enlivening melody 

 from amidst the foliage not more than three 

 yards away. " How well that blackcap sings ! " 

 I remarked. " That blackbird," she corrected ; 

 "yes, it sings well." She stuck to it that it was 

 a blackbird, and to prove that I was wrong 

 assured me that there were no blackcaps there. 

 Finding that I refused to acknowledge myself 

 in error, she got cross and dropped into suUen 



