104 BIRDS AND MAN 



life and movement ; but sometimes in the heart 

 of a deep wood the silence is broken by its 

 sudden loud lyric : it is unexpected and sounds 

 unfamiliar in such a scene; the wonderfully 

 joyous ringing notes are like a sudden flood of 

 sunshine in a shady place. The sound is in- 

 tensely distinct and individual, in sharp contrast 

 to the low forest tones : its effect on the ear is 

 similar to that produced on the sight by a vivid 

 contrast in colours, as by a splendid scarlet or 

 shining yellow flowei; blooming solitary where 

 all else is green. The effect produced by the 

 wood wren is totally diflferent ; the strain does 

 not contrast with, but is complementary to, the 

 "tremulous cadence low" of inanimate nature 

 in the high woods, of wind-swayed branches 

 and pattering of rain and lisping and murmuring 

 of innumerable leaves — the elemental sounds 

 out of which it has been fashioned. In a sense 

 it may be called a trivial and a monotonous 

 song — the strain that is like a long tremulous 

 cry, repeated again and again without variation ; 

 but it is really beyond criticism — one would 

 have to begin by depreciating the music of the 

 wind. It is a voice of the beechen woods in 



