102 BIRDS AND MAN 



silence ; but ten or fifteen minutes later she 

 returned of her own accord to the subject. " I've 

 been thinking, sir," she said, " that you must be 

 right. I said there are no blackcaps here because 

 I've been told so, but aU the ^^same I've often 

 remarked that the blackbird has two different 

 songs. Now I know, but I'm so sorry that I 

 didn't know a few days sooner." I asked her 

 why. She replied, " The other day a young 

 American lady came to the castle and I took her 

 over the grounds. The birds were singing the 

 same as to-day, and the young lady said, ' Now, 

 I want you to teU me which is the blackcap's 

 song: Just think,' she said, 'what a distance I 

 have come, from America ! Well, when I was 

 bidding good-bye to my friends at home I said, 

 " Don't you envy me ? I'm going to Old Eng- 

 land to hear the blackcap's song." ' Well, when 

 I told her we had no blackcaps she was so dis- 

 appointed ; and yet, sir, if what you say is right, 

 the bird was singing near us aU the time ! " 



Poor young lady from America ! I should 

 have liked to know whose written words first 

 fired her brain with desire of the blackcap's 

 song — a golden voice in imagination's ear, while 



