The warble of the babillard (_Curruca garrula_, Brisson) is pretty and
lively, but its song is rendered monotonous in the spring and summer by
the constant repetition of its loud note of defiance, analogous to the
clear lively note with which the blackcap generally concludes: this may
be expressed by the monosyllable _see_, repeated nine or ten times in
quick succession, and at times very loudly: it is a note, which, though
agreeable enough when only heard occasionally, becomes quite tiresome
when continually reiterated. This species, however, can warble very
sweetly if it please, and, in confinement, during the first months of
the year, its song is heard to great advantage in a room; it then rarely
repeats its loud _see see see_, and when, at that time, the
above-mentioned note is uttered, it forms, indeed, an agreeable variety.
The song of the babillard is formed of a number of soft chirping notes,
many of which are extremely sweet and musical, and though at times
tolerably loud, yet they are generally delivered in a very low tone,
scarcely audible at a little distance. The male is almost perpetually
singing, erecting his crest and the feathers of his throat in the manner
of a white-throat, and, like that species and the furze warbler, he is
in constant motion the whole time, throwing himself into a variety of
odd gesticulations. The song of this bird is very superior to that of
many white-throats, but not to all; he has none of those harsh sounding
notes which so often disfigure the white-throat's song. He seems also to
be always in such high spirits as not to know how to contain himself,
taking frequently a long circuitous flight from tree to tree, and back
again, a dozen times, seemingly for no other purpose than mere exercise;
but he never mounts singing into the air, like the white-throat. There
are yet many persons, I believe, who consider this species to be "a mere
variety" of the white-throat. These two species differ from each other
in size, in make, in colour, in their manners, their habits, their song,
in the structure of their nest, and in the marking of their eggs; and
surely, "if all these circumstances (as Wilson observes, after making
similar remarks on two American birds, one of which had been considered
a 'bastard' production of the other) be not sufficient to designate this
(the babillard) as a distinct species, by what criterion, I would ask,
are we to discriminate between a _variety_ and an _original species_,
or, to assure ourselves, that the great horned owl is not, in fact, a
_bastard_ goose, or the carrion crow a mere _variety_ of the humming
bird?"