English And Foreign Song-birds

The English birds are more domestic and familiar Ulan ours; more ilirectly and intiinaU'ly asaoclated with man ; not, as a class, so withdrawn :md lost in the great void of the wild and the unreclaiined. Enfjlaud is like a continent concentrated - :ill the waste land, the barren stretches, tlie wildernessesleftout. The birdsarebrought near tojiether and near to man. Wood biiils Iktc are house and garden birds there. They find good pasturaje and protectiou everywhere. A land of parks, andfrardens, and hedge-rows, and pame pieservcs, and B ilimate tree l'roni violent extremes - what ;i ttafte tor the birds, and for enlianctng the effect of theirsongs ! How prolitic tlicy aic, IlOW abundant! If our sonjrsters rere hunted and trapped, by blrd-fanclers and othere, at the lurk, and goldflnch, and inavis. etc, are in Enüland, tlie race would sDim becorne extinct. The n, as a rule, it i.s probably true that he Bi Itlih birds, as a class, have mora rokje than eun have, or cerlaln qnalltiea that makt1 tlicir loafn more ttrlking ai 'i conspiououi such as (rreater vfvacity and atrength. They are lesa brlsüt In pi um Age, but more nnlmated ia voice. Tliev ave nnt so recently out of the w oeds, UBd their straloa have not that elush umi plaintiveness tbal iAiis have. They sin; Ui more oonfldence and copiougDcaa, and pis I tlicv, too, had heen lotichcd by (MÜation. 'l'licn Uhv siiiij moro liours in the day, and min (; days In the year. Tln.s II owiiuc to the milder and more equable cliinate. I hfaul toe skv-laik .sinixinjr above the South Downs in ('tciolicr, apparentty with t ti 1 1 spring fervor and delijrhl. The wren, the robín, and the wood-lark sing throtgboul the winter, and in miilsiimnur theri; are pernapa Ilncr linies as many vocal throals a luit'. The heat and hla.e of our inidsiiiiiini-r sun silencc BM of OUT IhhU. On Ihc Otber haml, tlieie are ci-iiain aspeeti in liirh onr nogttan appear to ad vanlac. Tliat tlicy snrpass tho Buropean species n sweetnen, cendsrBOM, ami melodv 1 have no ddiilit, and tliatour uockingblrd, hl his nativc hannts In toe Soiilli, snrpaMet any bird in the woi 11 in ooMpata, vaiiiMy, and exerntion is highly probable. That tlie total effect of his strain nia ba leM v inning and peFtOadve Ihan the tmrtiirnc oí the niijlilingali', 11 tin only qiirtion in my inind ahout tLe ri'lative niirils 0Í tlir tWO songsters. Hiing our birds togethei u thej brousbt together In England. all our shy wood -hinls- like the herinit tlnusli, tlie very, the winter wren, the wood wagtail, the water wagtail, the inaiiy uarliliTs, the firccnlet, the solitary vii'eo, etc. - beoome binl ui' ttie (trovet and orchards, and llieii' would bc a bur.-t of ong üidead.