THE PASSERINES 201

singing when I went to sleep; he was still singing
when I woke two hours later; he sang through the
livelong night.’

That is about the best that has yet been done
for the American favourite ; it is as good in its way
as George Meredith’s skylark effort :—--

He rises and begins to round,

He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break,

In chirrup, whistle, slur, and shake,
All intervolved and spreading wide,
Like water-dimples down a tide
Where ripple ripple overcurls .

And eddy into eddy whirls ;

A press of hurried notes that run
So fleet they scarce are more than one,
Yet changingly the thrills repeat
And linger ringing while they fleet.

There are some six thousand passerines alone. In
the Thrush family are the blackbird, the bower birds,
the wheatears, the chats, the robin, and all the
warblers and many of the so-called wrens, though
not the real one; close to them come the Czucline,
including the dippers, and then the tits. The wren,
Troglodytes, is near at hand, with the shy nuthatch and
the cheery wagtails. The shrikes and the waxwings
can be taken next as leading on to the swallows and
martins ; and hereabouts room must be found for

the creepers and multitudinous finches, including the
grosbeaks, the whidaws, and the weavers, buntings,
and plant-cutters. To another closely allied group
belong the starlings and then the crows, including the