The Morning Chorus
How early in the year does the morning chorus of bird-song begin ? The magnificent tuning up of the bird orchestra, so exhilarating in full spring, seems to have nothing to do with January ; yet on the morning of January rzth, on a day when the maximum temperature along the English south coast and even in Scotland was higher than that of Rome, it was already splendid. It had all the characteristics of the full spring chorus : concentration, so that all the birds seemed to be sitting on the roof of the house, excitement, pure joy, and was performed in pitch darkness. Later in the morning it lost its concentration, spreading out in normal fashion, but was still astonishingly rich for the time of the year. That evening the thrushes prolonged it beyond twilight. Two days later a gale reputedly of too m.p.h. silenced everything except the thrushes, which sang brilliantly against it in the falling darkness. A day later the wind lessened and changed, veering north, and at seven in the morning the bird chorus was again enchanting.
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