eaves of houses; their starling in church steeples and in holes in
walls; several thrushes resort to sheds to nest; and jackdaws breed in
the crannies of the old architecture, and this in a much milder climate
than our own.

They have in that country no birds that answer to our tiny, lisping
wood-warblers,--genus _Dendroica,_--nor to our vireos, _Vireonidœ._ On
the other hand, they have a larger number of field-birds and semi-game-
birds. They have several species like our robin; thrushes like him, and
some of them larger, as the ring ouzel, the missel-thrush, the
fieldfare, the throstle, the redwing, White's thrush, the blackbird,--
these, besides several species in size and habits more like our wood
thrush.

Several species of European birds sing at night besides the true
nightingale,--not fitfully and as if in their dreams, as do a few of
our birds, but continuously. They make a business of it. The sedge-bird
ceases at times as if from very weariness; but wake the bird up, says
White, by throwing a stick or stone into the bushes, and away it goes
again in full song. We have but one real nocturnal songster, and that
is the mockingbird. One can see how this habit might increase among the
birds of a long-settled country like England. With sounds and voices
about them, why should they be silent, too? The danger of betraying
themselves to their natural enemies would be less than in our woods.

That their birds are more quarrelsome and pugnacious than ours I think
evident. Our thrushes are especially mild-mannered, but the missel-
thrush is very bold and saucy, and has been known to fly in the face of
persons who have disturbed the sitting bird. No jay nor magpie nor crow
can stand before him. The Welsh call him master of the coppice, and he