June 22, 1891.
Chester, England.
(no 5)
  sound, lost it, then heard it coming from
several points at once. I was now in a broad street
shaded by a double row of horse-chestnuts in full
bloom with gardens and shrubbery on both sides, the
houses, all of brick overrun with ivy, about as
numerous as near any place in Cambridge. The birds
were singing in the horse-chestnuts, over directly over
me. I tried in vain to get a sight at them. Song
much like our Thrashers' but more broken and with
more apparent mimicry. I recognized it at once as
that of the Song Thrush. Burroughs describes it well.
I asked a countryman, a boy, an old man, and
two young men what the birds that were singing were
but not one could tell me certainly although all
agreed that they were either Blackbirds or Throstles.
There were positively no other bird voices except those
of the Swifts which just at sunset collected in a 
swarm and whirled about in a great circle high
in air as described by Gilbert White. Once I
thought I heard a Barn Swallow's note. Saw a 
Heron, probably from the Eaton Park heronry, fly
over in the gloaming heading towards the Dee.
Heard no crickets, frogs, toads or other voices.
Saw a small white moth. The air was
damp but warm. A light wind in the trees.
It was broad daylight at 9 P.M. and light
enough to read coarse print at 9.40.
  I did not return to the house until
10 P.M. when the sky was still bright
in the west.