Show singing english r birds from in an article by theodore roosevelt in the outlook br by 41 arrangement Arran with the outlook of which theodore roosvelt velt is contributing 1910 lla by the rho outlook company all ali hights Reig ervett ved like moat most americans american 4 interested in birds and book books I 1 know knew a good deal about english birda birds as they appear in books I 1 know the lark ot of shake speare and shelley and the atrick shepherd I 1 know the of allton and keate keats I 1 know words worth a cuckoo I 1 know mavis and merile singing in the merry greet green wood el f the old ballad ballads I 1 know jenay wren and cock robin of the nursery books therefore I 1 have always alaya much desired to bear the birda birds in real life and the opportunity offered last june X I 1 could natch snatch but a few houra hours from it very exacting round of pleasure pleasures and duties it una necessary for me ty to la ba with some companion who could iden tiby aly both loth cong song and singer in sir edward eduard grey a keen lover ot of outdoor life in all its phases and a delight ful companion who knows the songs nd ind ways at english birds as an very few do know them I 1 found the best pos elble guide we left london on the morning of june 9 24 hours before I 1 sailed from southampton getting oft off the train at Basing basingstoke stoke wo we drove to the pretty smiling valley of the itchen here we tramped for three or four hours then again drove this time to the edge of 0 the new forest where we first took tea at an inn and hen then tramped through the forest to an inn on its oth er side at brockenhurst Brocken Brucken hurst at the con elusion of our walk my companion made a list of the birds we bad had seen putting an sin asterisk as opposite those which we bad had beard heard sing there were III 1 of the former and 23 of the latter aa 04 follows thrush lark yellow hammer robin wren golden crested created wren goldfinch pled pied Wag wagtail tall sparrow dunnock hedge fledge accouter missel thrush starling hook rook jackdaw black cap garden warbler willow warbler chin chiff chaff wood warbler tree creeper reed bunting used sedge g a war bier bler coot water hen lien little grebe tufted DUCK wood ili 11 scan tock stock dove turtle dove pee avi vis tit moal tit cuckoo night lar jar swallow martin swift pheasant P partridge the bird that most impressed me ine on ay my walk was the blackbird I 1 bad had already heard nightingales in aban dance dear near lake como and had also listened to larks but I 1 had never heard either elther the blackbird the ions song thrush or the black cap warbler and while I 1 knew all three were good singers I 1 did dot not know ahat hat really bean beau ticul singers they were blackbird were ere very abundant and they played a prominent part in the chorus which we beard throughout the day on very every hand though perhaps loudest the fol lowing morning at dawn in its habits and manners the blackbird strikingly resembles our american robin and in deed looks exactly like uke a robin with a yellow bill and coal black plumage it hops bops everywhere over the dawni lust just as our robin does and it lives in nests la in the be gardens in the same baab ion loz its cong sang has a general lesem blance to that of our robin but many of the notes are far more mu musical more like uke those these of our thrush indeed there were individuals among those so heard certain of whose notes seemed to me almost to equal in point ot of melody the chimes of the wood thrush and the highest possible praise tor for any song gong bird is to liken ita t song to that of the wood thrush or hermit thrush I 1 certainly do not think that I 1 ho he blackbird has received full justice la in the books I 1 knew thu it was a finger singer but I 1 really had no idea bow how one a singer be he was I 1 suppose one of at 11 troubles has ban been his name just as with our own cat bird when he appears in the ballads as the merle werle bracketed with bis his cousin the mavis the song thrush it Is tit far easier to rec him as the master inzer singer that he Is tn it Is a fine thing for england to 0 have such an asset of the country ida a bird so common so much in tn evidence so fearless and such a really beautiful linger singer the most musical singer we beard was the black cap warbler to my my ear its song seemed more musical than that of the nightingale it was toni powerful for to 10 small A bird in volume and continuity it dor dare not rat come up to the songs of the thrushes and of certain other birds but in quality as on an isolated bit of me dewy lovly it can hardly be surpassed amace the minor the robin was nati able e we all know this aretty little bird from the books and I 1 was prepared to find him as friendly und and attractive as be he proved to a be but I 1 had not realized how well he sang it was not a loud song but very mu leal steal and attractive and the bird Is sald to sing practically all through the year the song of the wren later inters bated me much because it was not in the least like that of our house wren s but on tl th contrary like that of at our winter wren the theme Is the same as the winter wrens but tho the song did not seem to me to be to 0 o brilliantly haq leal as that of the tiny singer of the north woods tho the sedge warbler sang in the thick reeds a mocking ven lay which reminded me mo at times of the less pronounced parts of our yellow breasted chats song te cukros cu koos cry was singularly attractive and musical far more eo so than tho the rolling many times repeated note of our rain crow ten days later at Sag sagamore amare hill 1 I was vias among my own birds and was wai much interested as I 1 listened to and looked at them in remembering the notes and actions of the birds I 1 had seen in england on the evening of the first day I 1 cat sat in my rocking chair on the broad veranda looking lookin 9 across the sound towards the glory of the sunset the thickly grossed hill side sloped down in front of roe me to a belt of forest from which rose the golden goldon leisurely chiming of the wood thrushes chanting their vespers through the still air came the warble of vireo and tanager and after night fall we heard beard the flight song of an oven bird from the same belt of urn tim ber overhead an oriole sang in the weeping elm now and then breaking 9 bis his song to scold like an overgrown wren song sparrows and cat bird birds cang in the shrubbery one robin had built its nest over the front and one over the back door and there was a chippy s nest in the wisteria vine b be porch during the next 24 houra hours I 1 saw and beard heard either right around the house or while walking down to bathe through tho woods the following 42 birds little green heron quail red tall ed hawk yellow billed cuckoo kingfisher flicker hummingbird swift meadow lark red winged blackbird rd sharp tailed finch sone song sparrow chipping sparrow bub bush sparrow purple finch 1131 baltimore timor oriole Cow bunting robin sc arlet thrush thrasher Thra br cat bird scarlet ked eyed vireo yellow war bier bler black throated green warbler king bird wood pewee crow blue jay cedar bird maryland yellow throat chickadee black and white creeper cam Darn swallow alte breasted 9 ewillow oven bird ThIstle finch ves Per finch indigo bunting towhee grasshopper sparrow and screech owl I 1 I 1 cent sent the companion of at my english walk john burroughs birds and poets john burroughs life work vork it 1 beginning to have its full effect in many different line lines when he first clr wrote there were few men of at letteri lettera in our country who knew nature at first hand now there ara are many won delight in our birds who know th their air songe who keenly love all that belong to out of doors life for instance mad icon cawein and ernest mcguffy have for a number of years written of our and flews fields of tho the birds and th tb flowre as an only those these can write who join to love of nature the gift of observation and the gift of description cawein Is to a kentuckian Kentuck lan and an other kentuckian Kentuck lan miss julia stockton dinsmore Oin smore in the little volume of 0 poems which ithe be has just bublis published bed includes many which describe with ith beauty and charm the sights and sounds to dear to all of us w who ho know american country life mis Dins morer fr knows kentucky and the gulf co cont of at and the great plains of north dakota and she know knows also the regions that lie outside 0 what can c an be seen with material vision for years in our family e have hart harl ome some of ber her poems in the scrap book cut from newspapers when we knew nothing about her except the initial Ini signed in the verses only one who lees sees with the eyes of the spirit as well as the eyes of the body could have written the threnody curiously at in its simplicity and patho with which the little book opens it contains many poems that make a elm liar appeal the writer knows blue bird and robin redbird and field lark larl and whippoorwill just ns she know southern river rivers and western plain plains she knows known rushing winds and running waters and the tights and sounds ot of lonely places and moreover mo moreover reoler h 0 knows and almost tells those th ose h bidder adde sh r things of the heart which never find complete utterance THEODORE ROOSEVELT |