Gyngell : The Singi}ig Time of Birds. 



more solemnity than the or^-an or the choir. I heard one 

 sing-ing- in Scarboroug-h Market Hall on one Christmas Eve. 

 The Swallow softly twitters. The song Thrush's notes are gay, 

 varied, and plentiful, though many of them are very squeaking. 

 In its song, too, set phrases are frequently repeated. The 

 Blackbird delights us all with his rich flute-like notes, sung in 

 slow time and with accomplished manner. The Blackcap gives 

 us the sounds of bubbling waters. The Nightingale's song 

 •exceeds all in variety, sweetness, and power. To my mind no 

 poet has exaggerated its abilities. The Grasshopper Warbler 

 imitates a faint pea whistle, and seems to have the power of 

 •continuing the sound for an indefinite time, and the same may 

 be said of the Nightjar's mimicry of the sound of a threshing 

 machine. The Cuckoo's voice is almost human. The Great 

 Titmouse reminds us of a joiner sawing a plank. Groans, 

 grunts, snorts, and snores, with sounds like weeping, wailing, 

 -and gnashing of teeth, come up the cliffs of Speeton from the 

 nesting haunts of the Puffin, Razorbill, Guillemot, and Kitti- 

 wake. Demoniacal laughs from the Herring and Black-backed 

 Gulls. Weird and unearthly shrieks, as well as deep and solemn 

 hooting, characterise the voices of Owls. 



Birds as musicians are not merely vocalists. The Snipe 

 produces a wonderful bleating or buzzing sound in its downward 

 flight from a great height. 



The Nightjar by wing-clapping, and the Woodpeckers by 

 drumming on a hollow tree, express their emotions, especially 

 in the season of love or lust. 



And if the varied sounds seem endless, the manners of the 

 singers are almost equally so. Many birds besides the Skylark 

 love to sing on the wing. The Dipper sits on a stone in the 

 babbling brook, and there in mid-winter warbles sweetly, 

 though in spring he chases his loved one up and down stream, 

 ■and sings at her most alarmingly. 



The Sparrow and the Starling sing as happily on the house 

 roof as in tree or bush. High trees are the favourite resort of 

 the Missel Thrush. Many little birds, including the Sedge 

 Warbler, rarely rise above the lowest bushes. Hundreds of 

 vSparrows or Starlings often join in forming a general chorus in 

 a tall tree, on a building, or the ground. On a certain church 

 walls sometimes the chorus seems to continue all day, the place 

 of birds leaving the ivy being immediately occupied by new 

 comers. Several species, including the Pied W^agtail, 'sing 



Naturali«t, 



