THE SECRET OF THE WILLOW WREN 131 



are you? Isn't this a fine day? Let us have a 

 nice talk,' etc. etc. He is answered in the same 

 strain, and then replies, and so on. Nothing 

 more thoughtful, more refined, more feeling, can 

 be conceived. " In another passage he writes : " I 

 love them" (the robins), "but they fill a much 

 smaller part than the blackbird does in my heart. 

 To hear the blackbird talking to his mate a field 

 off, with deliberate, refined conversation, the 

 very acme of grace and courtesy, is perfectly 

 splendid." 



There are two more common British songsters 

 that produce much the same effect as the willow 

 wren and blackbird ; these are the swallow and 

 pied wagtail. They are not in the first rank as 

 melodists, and I can find no explanation of the 

 fact that they please me better than the great 

 singers other than their more human-hke tones, 

 which to my hearing have something of an 

 exceedingly beautiful contralto sound. The 

 swallow's song is familiar to every one, but that 

 of the wagtail is not well known. The bird has 

 two distinct songs: one, heard oftenest in early 

 spring, consists of a low rambling warble, with 

 some resemblance to the whinchat's song; it is 



