Show singing english birds ne printed from an a r tirl by theodore with tin att it u u t jonir of 0 which editor t 1910 b by y 1 11 he is 0 outlook u alook like mott Ameri americans aris interested in birds and anti booky books I 1 know a good deal about english birds ns as they appeal in lit books I 1 know the lark ot of shake nud and aid tho the attrick shepherd I 1 know the tho ot of milton and keats I 1 know cords cuckoo I 1 know mavis ard inertia singing in lit the merr green wood of the old tallada I 1 know jenny wren and cock robin ot of the nursery hooks books therefore I 1 have hae always alays much desired to heir the birds in real life and the opportunity offered last june As I 1 could anatel but a few hours from it very exacting round 0 of pleasures and duties it mas necessary tor for mo me to be with some companion mho bo could idea tiby both song and einger in sir aldard grey a keen lover loser ot of outdoor life in all its phase and rod a delight tul ful companion who knows knoo the songs and ways of english birds as very fe few do know them I 1 found tho best pos pas fible guide we left london on the morning of june 9 24 hours before I 1 sailed from southampton bout hampton getting off the train at Basing we drove to the pretty amiling valley of the itchen here we me tramped for or three or four hours then again drove this time to the edge ot of the new now forest where we first took tea at an inn and then tramped through the forest to an inn on its oth er side at Brocken hurst at the con elusion of our walk my companion made a list of the birds we had bad ceen seen putting an asterisk opposite those ft bich we had heard sing there were w ere ia 1 of the former and 23 of the latter as follows thrush blackbird lark yellow hammer robin wren golden crested wren goldfinch pled vied cartall WaR Wag tall sparrow dunnock hedge accentor missel thrush starling rook jackdaw black cap garden warbler willow warbler karbler chiff chaff wood warbler tree creeper heed hunting bunting sedge war bier coot water hen lien little grebe dabchick lUab Dabe chIck hick tufted duck wood PI acon stock dove turtle dove ilea uit tit coal tit cuckoo night jar swallow martin swift pheasant partridge the bird that most impressed me on my walk mas the blackbird I 1 had already heard nightingales in aban dance near lake conio como and had bad also listened to larks bui but I 1 bad had never heard cither either the blackbird the song thrush or the black cap warbler and while I 1 knew all three were good bangers bin gers I 1 did not know what hat really bean beau ticul singers they were blackbirds were very abundant and they played a prominent part in the chorus which we me beard heard throughout the day on every band hand though perhaps loudest the fol lowing morning at dawn in ls ifs habits and manners the blackbird strikingly resemble resembles our american robin and in aeed deed looks exactly like a robin with a yellow bill and coal black plumage it hops lops everywhere over the lawns lust just as our robin does and it lives in nests in the gardens in the same fash inn on its bong song has a general desern blance to that of our robin but many of the notes are far more musical more like those of our wood thrush thrash indeed there were individuals amoel those we me heard certain of whose notes seemed to me almost to equal in r I 1 of melody the el lines of the w thrush and the highest possible for any song bird ts Is to liken its song to that of the wood mood thrush or hermit thrush I 1 certainly do not think that the tha blackbird has received full justice in the books I 1 knew that it mai vas a einger singer but I 1 really had no idea how fine a singer he was I 1 suppose one of hi lit troubles bis been his name just as with our own cat bird when he appears in the ballads as the merle bracketed with his coti cousin aln tho the mavis movie the song thrush it it Is far easier to rec tee him as tho the master singer that be he Is it Is a fine thing for england to have such an asset of the country tide a bird so common so much in evi dence eo so fearless ald such a really beautiful finger singer the moat most musical singer we beard heard was tho the black cap warbler to my my car its song seemed more musical than that of the nightingale it was vas astonishingly powerful for so small a bird in n volume and continuity it does dot not conio come up to the songs of the thrushes thru shei and of certain other birds but in quality as an isolated bit of melody it can hardly be surpassed sur pissed among toe minor sing sings singes s the robin was noticeable we all know this pretty little bird birl from the books and 1 I was prepared ti to him as friendly and attractive as he hr proved to be but I 1 had not realized how bow well be he sang roosevelt evell in the 0 by L theodore la in company all rights it was t tot ot a loud cung song but very mil and attractive und unit the bird 1 Is gal aall I 1 to sing practically all through the year the long tong of the wren uren inter doted me much because it was not in hie the least like bat that of our bouse house wren rens but on the contrary runt like th 4 ot of our winter inter wren uren the theme Is the same as the m winter inter wren but the fong lid did not to me to be bt so brilliantly mu as that of the tiny singer ot of the north woods the sedge warbler bans sang in the thick reeds a mocking en lay jay which reminded me at times of the lose less pronounced parts of our yellow breasted chats song son the cukros cu koob cry was singularly attractive and far more so than the rolling many times repeated noto note of our rala crow ten daya days later at sagamore hill I 1 was among my own birds and wae was much interested cd as I 1 listened to and looked at them in remembering the notes and actions of the birds I 1 bad had seen in angland on the evening of the first day da I 1 eat sat in my rocking chair on the broad veranda looking across the sound towards the glory of the sunset the thickly gri ased hill sido side i loped down don in front of me to a belt of forest from which rose the golden leisurely chimiel chimi nL of the wood thrushes chanting their vespers through the still air came the warble of vireo and tanager and after night fall we heard the flight song of 0 an oven bird from the same belt of urn tim her overhead an oriole sang in the weeping elm now and then his song to scold like an overL overgrown grown wren ren song sparrows and cat birds sang in the one robin had built ita its nest ovar the front and one over the back door ani ant there was a nest in the wisteria Al steria vine b the porch during the next 21 hours I 1 saw and heard either right around the house or while hile walking down to bathe through abu woods the following 42 birds little orein heron quill tied fled tall ed hawk killed billed cuckoo kingfisher 1 ticket hummingbird swift meadow lark ned red winged blackbird bird rd sharp tailed finch bone bong sparrow Chip plug sparrow bush sparrow purple rinch baltimore oriole Cow bunting robin thrush Thra thrasher shAr cat kird scarlet red I 1 yellow aar ar bier throated green warbler king ing bird wood pewee crow blue jay ceder bird maryland bellou throat ChIck chickoree tree black and linfitt ehlt creeper barn bilow k bite breasted Ure asted swallow oven bird ve net per pern fInch indigo bunting to tow bee lite grasshopper sparrow and Scree ct owl OA I 1 I 1 sent the companion of my angll walk john burroughs burds and poets john burroughs life work mark li it beginning to have its full effect in many different lines hen he ilasi wrote there were ere few men of letter in our country who knew nature at first hand no now there at are many wb delight in our birds who know theft songe who keenly love all till that belong to out of doors life for instance mad alad ison cawein and ernest havo for a number of years written of our woods and holds fields of tho bar birds s and ohp flowers as only those can write who join to love of nature the gift of 0 ob and the gift of description at mr cawein Is a kentuckian Kentuck lan and an other kentuckian Kentuck lan miss julia stockton dinsmore in the little volume ot of poems which she has just published includes many which describe with beauty and charm the sights ond and sounds so dear to nil rill of us who know american country life mis miss dinsmore knows kentucky and the gulf boist of loui I 1 louissana slana and the great plains of north cikota and she know also tho the regions that lie of what can bo be seen with mith material vision for years in our family we have had some game of her poems in the scrap book bol cut from newspapers when we me knew nothing about her except the initial signed in the verses only one who ho sees with the eyes of the spirit as well as the eyes of the body could hav has written the Ibre nod curiously at in its simplicity ind p isbos with which the little book opens it contains many poems hat that make a at elm in liar flat appe it the writer knows bluebird and robin redbird and held field lark and whippoorwill orill just as Rs she knows southern river and western plains she knob rushing winds and running waters aters and he the eights sights and sounds of lonely places and moreover the i he knows knos and almost tells those aidlen things of the heart which never find complete utter utterance ince THEODORE ROOSEVELT |