Throughout That District, Where
The Fields Are Small, And The Trees Big And Near Together, He
Has The Cirl-Bunting's Habit Of Perching To Sing On The Tops
Of High Hedgerow Elms And Oaks.
By and by I had a better bird to listen to - a redstart.
A
female flew down within fifteen yards of me; her mate followed
and perched on a dry twig, where he remained a long time for
so shy and restless a creature. He was in perfect plumage,
and sitting there, motionless in the strong sunlight, was
wonderfully conspicuous, the gayest, most exotic-looking bird
of his family in England. Quitting his perch, he flew up into
a tree close by and began singing; and for half an hour
thereafter I continued intently listening to his brief strain,
repeated at short intervals - a song which I think has never
been perfectly described. "Practice makes perfect" is an
axiom that does not apply to the art of song in the bird
world; since the redstart, a member of a highly melodious
family, with a good voice to start with, has never attained to
excellence in spite of much practising. The song is
interesting both on account of its exceptional inferiority and
of its character. A distinguished ornithologist has said that
little birds have two ways of making themselves attractive - by
melody and by bright plumage; and that most species excel in
one or the other way; and that the acquisition of gay colours
by a species of a sober-coloured melodious family will cause
it to degenerate as a songster.
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