The Dawn Chorus .
Ornithologists in these days try to be very scientific, and all sorts of statistics are being collected. The latest is an attempt to analyse " the dawn chorus " so called. On a particular day the public is asked to wake early and find out which birds in what order engage in this orchestral performance. They are also to notice which birds continue singing to the latest hour in the evening, cutting out, I presume, such night birds as the nightingale, sedge-warbler, cuckoo and "goat-sucker." I would back the lark as a beginner and the thrush as an ender. The event is arranged in a good year. The warblers have excelled themselves, and our hedge sparrows and linnets and finches have sung unceasingly ; and though the garden is alive with young blackbirds and thrushes and even chaffinches, their parents have not diminished their lyrics. On the other hand swallows are sadly few, in my neighbourhood at least.
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