THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 29 
is uttered seeming the effusion of the moment. At , 
times a strain will break out perfectly unlike any 
preceding utterance, and we may wait a long time 
without noticing any repetition of it. During one 
spring^ an individual song- thrush, frequenting a 
favourite copse, after a certain round of time, trilled 
out most regularly some notes that conveyed so 
clearly the words, lady-hird ! lady-hird ! that every 
one remarked the resemblance. He survived the win- 
ter, and in the ensuing season the lady-hird ! lady 
bird ! was still the burden of our evening song ; it 
then ceased, and we never heard this pretty modula- 
tion more. Though merely an occasional strain, yet 
I have noticed it elsewhere ; it thus appearing to be 
a favourite utterance. Harsh, strained, and tense, as 
the notes of this bird are, yet they are pleasing from 
their variety. The voice of the blackbird is infi- 
nitely more mellow, but has much less variety, com- 
pass, or execution ; and he, too, commences his 
carols with the morning light, persevering from hour 
to hour without effort or any sensible faltering of 
voice. The cuckoo wearies us throughout some long 
May morning with the unceasing monotony of its 
song ; and though there are others as vociferous, yet 
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