Norwich bulletin., 1918-10-04
ReVivinu Melodies.

For a few weeks in later summer, sometimes July, sometimes August, ac- ccrding to temperature, English bird song touehes it's nadir. All the birds which reach England in spring are then silent except a casual sedge war tier by the river or (greater) white throat in the hedge There are snatches of faint music from sky lark, goldfnch, yellow hammer, and more rarely-from q cliaffinch at dawn; whilst the wheezy corn bunting will often sing, from clod in the fal- low or from telegraph wire, through the head. and the cirl huntington the few who recognize hirn-ai1d the ring dove, of course. in the evening. F'i- rally there is the wren with little quih,' the singular sprits that bub- bles over with laughter and song 12 months in each year. These amount to very little, and there is virtually nothing else.
 The nadir is soon past, and the will low warbler and the chif -chaff strike up; they both begin to sing anew as they drop off towards the coast on their journey to the south of Europe and to Africa. The third member of their delicate group common to Eng land, the wood warbler, apparently never resumes his spring song There are two other species ta the group, rnelodious willow Warbler and icterine warbler too rare, however, in Eng land. to speak of in this matter; though just across the channel they are common, singing in the war zone, for instance, at Arras.
 A chiffchaf perhaps can hardly be +.N a-s-, ,erf {l- spring in the usual acceptStion of the word. The willow warbler has an ex- quisite thread of song. It is attenu= ated. Yet in spring he will put an effort into it which is almost distress | ing to witness at very close quarters, 1 his whole minute frame vibrating with 1 tte passion of the thing \ bird col lector once catapulted willow Wafb- l Ter in song. His shot took off q leg l of the singer, which none the less | went through to the end with the per i forfnanee He has recorded that af-
 ter that he flung away his catapult | for ever, feeling like mut derer Beautiful as the willow warbler's song
 is-unhurried, well arranged, pathe- l tic, sweet-it is not, never will be, a
 well known feature of English bird 1 song except for a few observers and | listeners. It IS not big enough to be l well known. T. is for a comparatively 1 few connoisseurs; and they are al agreed on. it's merits. Today there is far too little of the willow warbler's
 song to be widely noticed; whilst 1T spring it was dowhed in the choir O cuckoo, nightingale, lark, thrush, ant blackbird. The share of notice whici ktfe willow warbler gets among mos people who listen to birds is abou equal to the notice which the mos
 Ghatel in the hedge or spurrey in thu
 field gets among those who gathel wild flowers.
 Therefore, when the birds star
 anew in August, the redbreast is tht
 Cne signal performer He compeh
 more or less the attention of every body whose ears are not resoiLtel,
 sealed to natural music-in whom na
 tufe lat once entrance is not quit
 shut out" It is a wonderful perform
 ance certainly, either at dawn or dusk and from now till well into the au
 tunln it goes on improving and grow ing more and more marked; inel, : drawn out, the notes dWelt upon, til with the fall of the leaves it become 7 fuii and flawless. All the pathos 0
 the passing year is in the redbreast' song. Granted, the redbreast gave tn same notes in early spring, drew then , out, dwelt on them in precisely tn
 same manner-for this redbreast is al
 artist and he seems to be listening t and admiring his own 7ong crilicall the effect is totally different. Wha ] is a dirge in late summer and au
 tumn was quite notably a paean i 1 early spring.
 The redbreast entirely dominates q , this later singing of English bird right on into the winter-an1 indee . till spring. But there comes seren day in early autumn-sonletimes a ] early as September 30 even. usual 9 not till October-when the song thrus T reasserts himself. And the frs bar
 Of the song (not the misseD thrus
 iTs early autumn strike upon som :, ears as the most delicious in the yea In an old walled garden they are mag ical in sweetness. - Special Cores n pondence to the London Times
 Di Henri Beland, ex- oostmaste a general of the Dominion on his re l, turn from Europe after his reIaas a from German prison, gave an inter e view to the Toronto Globe. in whic :, he said:
 Only politics for all civilization ii
 this war is won-that is what we 3 t want most. I came out of prison lik = a baby that has just been born. . know very little about events the f have taken place in Canada while
 have been in prison. I must beg!
 again. must learn Ike child. il
 there is one thing tfat I have not { I1 iharn.xQaeAth thSngL I -knoE@<=that human