England.
Niton, Isle of Wight.
1909
Aug. 26 [August 26, 1909]
(No 2)
and troublesome in Niton. They have bitten her
frequently and once so seriously that she was badly poisoned
and confined to her room for a day or two. She has
noticed the "wrigglers" in the water barrel but did not
suspect they were mosquito larvae. The water will be
drawn off to-morrow morning (this was done).
  About sunset this evening I heard a bird making
a great variety of odd sounds, some of them rather loud
but most of them uttered in an undertone. Some were
metallic, other wheezy or asthmatic, still others liquid, like
falling water or water flowing from a bath, and others again
very like a human whistle of three or four notes given with
varying modulation. The whole performance reminded me
somewhat of that of a Cat-bird singing sotto voce.
I have also heard our Blue Jay produce something
like it. From the first I suspected that a Starling
was the author of it and at length I saw him - in
the top of an Austrian Pine. Among his other notes
was one exactly like the alarm cry of a Barn Swallow
and another like a bar in the Robin's Song. I suspect
he is a good deal given to deliberate mimicry.
Song of the Starling
  The night was cloudless & calm with bright moonlight.
About 9.30 I walked all over the grounds about the
hotel and through several of the neighboring shady lawns
listening for bird & insect sounds. At home I should
have heard the lisping calls of many a migrating Warbler
& a perfect din of insect sounds, on such a night, but
here the only sound of any kind that reached my ear
was the low chirp of a single cricket in a hedge. The
grasshopper in our garden was silent to-night. Probably
some bird has found & eaten him
Absence
of insect
& bird sounds
at night,
One cricket,
only heard
to-night