Morning journal and courier., 1883-05-15

and was not long in analyzin this spirited
 bird choir and tracing each note homo to it's proper source It was indeed burst Of song. as the Duke of Argyll had said, but the principal singer his grace does not mention. Indeed, nothing had read or could find Tn the few popular tFsatises on British ornitho1- ogy I carried about with me had given me an inkling of what was the most abundant and vociferous English song bird, any more than what had read or heard had given me any idea of what was the most striking and conspicuous wild flower or the most univer-
 sal weed. Now the most abundant song bird
 in Britain is the chafdnch; the most conspic-
 uous wild flower Gin June at least) is the fox glove, and the most ubiquitous weed is the nettle. Throughout the month of May, and
 probably throughout all the spring months, the chaffinch makes two thirds of the mu-
 sic that ordinarily greets the ear as one walks or drives about the country. In both England and Scotland, in my walks up to the time of my departure, the last of July,
 I seemed to see three chafinches to one Of any other species of bird. It is pern1a- nent resident in this island, and in winter appears in immense focks The male Is the prettiest of British song birds, with it's soft blue gray back, barred wings and pink breast and sides The Scotch call it shilfa. At Alloway there was a shilfa for every tree, and it's hurried and ineessant notes met and intersected each other from all di- rsctions every moment of the day like g1axeasSs~on 6 summer pool. Sc many birds, and each one 70 persistent and vo- ciferous. accounts for their part Tn the choir. The song is as loud as that of our orchard starling, and is even more anlnna- ted It begins with rapid wren-like trill, which quickly becomes 8 sharp jingle, then slides into a warble, and ends with an abrupt flourish. I have never heard a song that began so Hltingly and ended with such quick, abrupt emphasis. The last note sounds like whittier" uttered with great sharpness bat one that used to sing in an apple tree over my head day after day there by the Doon finished it's strain each time with the sharp ejaculation, ''Sister, right here" In Germany, in the forest Of Thuringia, the bird is in such quest that scarcely can one be heard. A common
 workman has been known to give his COW
 far less melody and charm of song than
 some of our inches, notably our purple
 finch; but it is so abundant, and so per
 sistent in song, that in quantity of music
 it far excels any singer we have.
 Next to the chafinch In the volume of it's song, and perhaps in some localities sur
 passing it, is the song thrush I did not find
 this bird upon the Doon, and but rarely in
 other places in Scotland, but in the south of England it leads the choir. Its voice can be heard above all others. But one would nev CT suspect it to be thrush. It has none of the fute-like melody and serene devotional quality of our thrush strains. It is a shrilL
 whistling polyglot Its song is much after the manner of that of our own brown thrash CT (Harporhynchus refus) made up of vocal attitudes and poses. It is easy to translate it's strain into various words of ejaculatory sentences. It sings till darkness begins to deepen, and I could fancy what the young couple walking in the eloaming would hear from the trees overhead. 'tKiss her, kiss her; do it, do it; be quick, quick; stick her to it. stick her to it :; that was neat, that was neat; that will do," with many other calls hot so explicit, and that might sometimes be construed as approving mods or winks. Sometimes it has a staccato whistle. Its per formance is always animated, loud andtclear, but never, to my ear.. nelodious, as the DO cts so often have it. Even Burns says: