148 



Gyngell : The Singing Time of Birds. 



For some time I was not quite sure I should include the 

 Titmouse family in my list of singing- birds, for I had doubts as 

 to whether some of their notes were songs or merely sociable 

 calls. Certain it is, however, that whether songs or calls they 

 become more loud and frequent in the spring time of song. 

 Thus, in January, the Great Titmouse, which has only called 

 * Chink ' like a Chaffinch during the autumn, only occasionally 

 saying 'Ping-chur' in a feeble manner and at rare intervals, 

 when February comes in repeats the 'Ping-chur' several times 

 in succession, and now we have no doubt that it is a song. In 

 January it was a single call or single link in the chain of song. 

 Now in February we have the full song, which consists only of 

 the same note several times repeated. The link has grown into 

 a chain. The Coal Titmouse, which in appearance is a miniature 

 of the Great Titmouse, now sings in miniature the Great Tit's 

 song. The Blue Titmouse has been calling ' Chin-chin-chiddr ' 

 for months, but it now gives us a new note ' 67^z>r-^^-chi-chi,' 

 w^hich doubtless is intended for a song. In the study of bird 

 song the Titmouses are somewhat puzzling. None of them seem 

 ever actually silent. They are exceedingly sociable, their notes 

 var}^ very much, and I really fancy that they mimic each other's 

 calls to some extent. 



The Titmouses are tiny indeed, but not so small as the Golden- 

 crested Wren, which is our smallest bird. There is no difficulty 

 in distinguishing this bird's rapid and continuous song from the 

 mouse-like squeak \v\\\<z\\ it constantly repeats when flitting about 

 in the fir trees with its restless brethren. In February, if our 

 liearing is sufficiently delicate, we first hear it ' Chick-a-T£'£'^ 

 chick-a-w^ chick-Si-^vee chur,' but it is not ever^-one who can 

 hear the bird at all, the song is often so faint. 



In March the bird orchestra is augmented by a few more 

 species of birds, and we notice day by day that the individual 

 singers become more and more numerous, their song's more full 

 and complete, and of course the longer days give us more and 

 more hours of music. 



In March we first hear the Greenfinch, a song-bird very much 

 under-rated. In its notes and general performance the bird some- 

 what resembles the Linnet, but it is superior to the Linnet in 

 the variety of its notes, which are low, sweet, and never harsh. 

 Since keeping a pair in confinement, I have been surprised at 

 the cock bird's vocal powers. A long-sustained ' Cree-e-e ' is 

 always a part of this bird's song, and, if we hear it at some 

 distance, this note will be the only one to catch the ear, just as 



Naturalist, 



