21 
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
time, although in no sense together, and the effect 
was very curious. This is not a song that spurts 
and gushes up fountain-like, in the manner of the 
robin's and of some other kinds, sprinkling the 
listener, so to speak, with a sparkling vocal spray ; 
but it keeps low down, a song that flows along the 
surface, gurgling and prattling like musical run- 
ning water in its shallow pebbly channel. But as 
I listened the similitude that seemed appropriate 
at first was cast aside for another, and then another 
still. The hidden singers scattered all about their 
rushy island were small fantastic human minstrels, 
performing on a variety of instruments, some 
unknown, others recognizable — bones and castanets, 
tiny hurdy-gurdies, piccolos, banjos, tabours, and 
Pandean pipes — a strange medley ! 
Interesting as this concert was it held me less 
than the solitary singing of a reed-warbler that 
lived by himself, or with only his mate, higher up 
where the stream was narrow so that I could get 
near him ; for he not only tickled my ears with his 
rapid reedy music, but amused my mind as well 
with a pretty little problem in bird psychology. 
I could sit wdthin a few yards of his tangled haunt 
without hearing a note ; but if I jumped up and 
made a noise, or struck the branches with my stick 
he would incontinently burst into song. It is a 
very well-known habit of the bird, and on account 
