■ An Overpraised Bird. 179 



Yet never was statement much wider away from the 

 truth. Not only is the blackcap's song inferior to that of 

 the nightingale — with which it has no claim to com- 

 parison — but is beaten, far excelled, by those of thrush, 

 blackbird, lark, linnet, and goldfinch. 



I had often wondered at this concurrence of belief in 

 the superiority of the blackcap's song, so different from 

 my own impressions of it. But I think I have discovered 

 the explanation. In nearly every instance where the 

 naturalist of Selborne has made a mistake the error 

 has been perpetuated by writers who have copied him ; 

 as, for example, that " crows go in pairs the whole year 

 round." In the case of the blackcap's song, however, 

 he has made no mistake ; instead, described it with re- 

 markable precision. His words are : — " The blackcap 

 has a full, sweet, deep, loud, and wild pipe ; yet that 

 strain is of short continuance, and his motions are desul- 

 tory ; but when that bird sits calmly and engages in 

 song in earnest, he pours forth very sweet, but inward 

 melody, and expresses great variety of goft and gentle 

 modulations, superior perhaps to those of any of our 

 warblers, the nightingale excepted." 



I have italicized the word warblers, for on that hinges 

 the weight of White's opinion, which influenced his 

 copyists, and so misled them. He clearly meant by it 

 our summer visitants, the soft-billed birds, or Sylviadce, 

 specially known as the " warblers," without any refer- 

 ence to our permanently resident songsters. For of the 

 former he was speaking when he so pronounced himself 

 about the blackcap. Elsewhere he simply characterizes 

 it as a "delicate songster," which is quite out of keeping 

 with his entertaining the belief that of all our song birds 

 it came next to the nightingale — as it certainly does not. 



