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Birds. 



unless very tall trees abound near our habitations ; he never conde- 

 scends to be very near the ground during his wild chant, which can 

 be heard at a great distance. 



The restless little goldfinch, the sprightly linnet, the chaffinch, with 

 his tune going prettily down a full octave, the wren and hedgesparrow, 

 are all inferior singers, and scarcely deserve a place in the category of 

 first-rate singing birds, although the first-named of these is often kept 

 in confinement more for his beautiful plumage and docility than his 

 song, like the piping bullfinch. The bullfinch is a nice bird in a room, 

 but its note is so weak that in a shrubbery one must be very near to 

 hear it at all. 



I have omitted to mention another bird, which some of our English 

 poets designate a singing bird ; I mean the cuckoo : at* all events the 

 cuckoo is a most pleasing harbinger in April of generally the first 

 lovely vernal days. If we are to reckon the cuckoo really a singing 

 bird, then my old friend the missel thrush must yield the palm to the 

 cuckoo, the delight of the schoolboy, as the largest singing bird in 

 England. The cuckoo is also at times a flying songster. 



" The same when in my schoolboy days 

 I listened to that cry 

 Which made me look a thousand ways, 

 In bush and tree and sky. 



***** 



blithe new comer! I have heard, 



1 hear thee and rejoice. 



O cuckoo ! shall I call thee bird, 

 Or but a wandering voice ? 



I hope my ornithological readers will not be offended by my lesser 

 notice of the other minor songsters of the grove, the wren, reedsparrow, 

 redpole, hedge accentor, siskin, the pretty meek and innocent wood 

 wren and the tomtit, each of which have their short notes and wild 

 spring calls. All these minor songsters add to the brilliancy of the 

 feathered choir on a fine early spring morning, and causes those who 

 really delight in "the country to feel what Addison describes as the 

 height of vernal enjoyment, scarcely capable of being expressed, but 

 at the same time enthusiastically felt by the lovers of Nature. 



H. W. Newman. 



Hillside, Cheltenham, 

 November 8, 1861. 



