or on iil < i aa k L902 MI 90 197 HU inl 4 a + _ es i . « Wire + Laie, , = —eer 2 < Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/fieldbookofwildbO0Omathuoft PiInE GROSBEAK 72,00\. Pred FIELD BOOK OF WILD BIRDS anv THEIR MUSIC A DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARACTER AND MUSIC OF BIRDS, INTENDED TO ASSIST IN THE IDENTIFICA- TION OF SPECIES COMMON IN THE UNITED STATES EAST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS #8 s s Ss s By F. SCHUYLER MATHEWS AUTHOR OF THE FIELD BOOK OF AMERICAN WILD FLOWERS, FIELD BOOK OF AMERICAN TREES AND SHRUBS, FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES, BOOK ‘OF BIRDS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE : : : : : : : 7 ye Hy WITH NUMEROUS REPRODUCTIONS OF WATER COLOR AND MONOTONE STUDIES OF BIRDS, AND COMPLETE MUSICAL ROT RAS OF PIED SONGS BY THE AUTHOR ae ees REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The nickerbocker Press COPYRIGHT, 1904 BY F. SCHUYLER MATHEWS COPYRIGHT, 1921 BY F. SCHUYLER MATHEWS Printed in the United States of America TO GENEVIEVE AND CARROLL MY ENTHUSIASTIC COMPANIONS IN MANY A HUN*® FOR THE FEATHERED SONGSTER THESE WOOD NOTES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED yh oe ae 7) 1 £ a ee ' ce! nA 5 ¥ jee ha T 2 sas " of ood ey INTRODUCTION TO THE REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star In his steep course? So long he seems to pause On thy bald awful head, O sovran Blanc! The Arve and Arveiron at thy base Rave ceaselessly; but thou, . . . Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines, How silently! ee ; sing ye meadow streams with gladsome voice! Ye pine groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds! SAMUEL TayLOoR COLERIDGE. When in the lapse of a number of years an accumulation of knowledge and experience has enlarged or modified one’s mental vision, it is well if the advance goes on record. Now, although my estimate of the character and signifi- cance of bird music has undergone little material change during a period of seventeen years, it has grown proportion- ately with those years, and I have added in this new edi- tion the results of my latest study. It is not necessary to apologize for the insistence upon the value of musical nota- tion expressed in my Introduction to Bird Music, there is no avoiding the facts stated therein, nor any cause to enlarge on them; but there is something to be added in relation to the musical scales of the birds, and in appreciation of the musical record and its popular as well as scientific usefulness. When one attains the commanding summit of a high mountain the horizon is greatly enlarged. If one remains in the valley and mountain walls shut one in on every side, the world indeed seems small. Coleridge soared upward like the lark when he wrote the lines quoted above. With v . INTRODUCTION, greatly enlarged vision he has epitomized the music of Nature as that must appeal to all of us else it cannot appeal at all. The mountain reveals the boundless horizon of a different world of which we have scarcely dreamed or thought, a world to which the little bird on viewless wing has ever sung, shall ever sing. His music is his language, for us it is interpretative of life’s experiénce; it is not a thing which we may cast aside as a child would discard his toy when it ceases to amuse. Hence, I believe the birds with their music are the revela- tion of a greater world, one with just such a boundless horizon as that which we view from the mountain’s summit marvelling that it is indeed the same narrow world we live in. It is not possible to listen to the melody of the Song Spar- row in early March without realizing for the time being that we are released from the cold clutch of winter and set down in the comfortable lap of spring. What matters it if the squalling interruptions of the Blue Jay disturb that delightful impression. A discordant note somewhere is a phase of life; not all the singers are divine, in fact, the world of music if it is true to life must record a due proportion of flippant jest, idle chatter, squawking disagreement, rag- time frivolity, mooning transcendentalism, and so on. A world of singing birds devoid of humor would be extremely dull; without something plainly, humanly nonsensical in it now and then it must be insufferably tedious. One would not dare to assume that naught of innocent jollity entered into the life of the bird. But of serene, exultant melody in the music of the birds there is plenty; the plainest evidence of it is in the songs of the Thrushes, and we have the convincing proof that their music is built upon definite, primitive scales—seales which the birds used ons of years before man did. This book is not the proper medium in which to set forth evolutionary theories of bird-song, but I must emphatically repeat that the bird sings first for love of music, and second for love of the lady. I am not alone in my theory of the inherent musical nature of song-birds, for Mr. Chauncey J. Hawkins writes in The Auk: “There must be something within the vi INTRODUCTION. bird himself which causes him to sing though there is no ear to listen,” and further, the writer advises his reader to “seek the cause of song in the internal life of the bird rather than in external causes.’’* _ The addition of many birds to the original group included in this book was a much needed one. Although a number of the species are rather uncommon, one is likely to be sur- prised by the appearance of a rare individual at any time in some most unexpected place; that has been my own ex- perience, and several of the song-records, notably those of the Lincoln Sparrow, the inimitable little Winter Wren, and the Tennessee Warbler, were quite accidental acquisitions; indeed, a considerable number of the notations contained here were such, but I believe they may at least claim the /eredit of “‘a-first appearance.’”’ Whether they are useful ' for the purpose of identifying the birds is another matter— - one which I must leave for the reader to decide. It is sufficient for me to point out that I recognized the song of the Veery for the first time in the winter of 1884 upon read- ing a notation of it in an article on Bird Music by Simeon Pease Cheney which appeared in the Century Magazine at that time. Thirty-one years later, on a certain occasion I requested a Boston musician to go to the piano, run his fingers in a particular way over a progression of minor thirds ascending within the diminished seventh and he would have the equivalent of the song of Swainson’s Thrush; he did so and instantly reproduced the notes of the musical record found on page 253. He did not see nor did he need to see the written music, the verbal description was enough. At the same time, for those who do not read or understand music I have not hesitated to introduce within these pages every possible means aside from music which may promise help in the identification of bird-song. Therefore, on this same page 253, there is a suggestive scalloped line accompanied by Bradford Torrey’s syllabic form which also represents the music of Swainson’s Thrush. Even if there were but one among a dozen of my consid- erate readers who could read a musical record, that would discount its ultimate value in no respect if it were truthful, * Vide The Auk, October, 1918, vol. xxxv., No. 4, p. 421. vil INTRODUCTION. for, in such form the song is in a state of scientific preserva- tion, which is more than may be said of a lack of musical knowledge! The time has already come when most of the advanced school children of Boston and New York can tell us exactly the difference between the chromatic and dia- tonic scales. A piano and a Canary may not be unmixed blessings in the house, but no one has yet ventured to sug- gest the home is blessed which boasts nor bird nor music! The correction of errors in text and music which must inevitably enter a book of this kind in spite of the greatest vigilance cannot always be successfully accomplished by one pair of eyes. In this connection I am greatly indebted to Mr. Henry L. Mason of Boston for his valuable sugges- tions and kindly interest in the work. It should also be borne in mind that for one who has always lived both in town and country in an atmosphere of music, the many allusions to musical parallelism within these pages are be- lieved to be as interesting and useful to others as to himself; and again, with respect to musical pitch, a vitally import- ant point in the transcription of bird-music, it should be explained that a musical mind is adept in carrying the key of C without assistance of instrument or pitch pipe. If it were not so the significant Twice or Thrice 8va. which appears over my notations would not be so constantly em- ployed. In certain cases—for example, the Warblers and the Cuckoos—musical pitch is an indubitable indication of the species! It should not be necessary for me to add that the piano arrangements here are meant solely to demonstrate the musical content of the bird’s song. Bird-notes can scarcely be recognized with the assistance of the piano. If one desires a tonal imitation of the song it must be whistled in accordance with its notation and in exact pitch, no other way will answer. F. ScovuyLter MaATHews. Cambridge, Mass., February, 1921. Viii PREFACE. Undoubtedly the thing we love and cherish most about the little wild-wood singer is his song. The music from the Robin sitting alone and apparently cheerless on the bare branch of the elm beside the road is at least a most welcome message with the true ring of springtime about it, even though the meadow is bare of any green thing, and the sky too dull and gray to sug- gest the advent of the gentler season. The calendar says it is March, but as far as appearances go it might just as well be grim November—except for the presence of the Robin. But fortunately appearances are dis- counted in a country where the poet has most aggra- vatingly sung : *‘ The spring comes slowly up this way.” As though we did not know that without being told as much in verse! The factis, itreally does not come at all as the poets would have it, either early or late. That familiar line of the old English poet, **Come, gentle spring, ethereal mildness, come”; is entirely unrelated to the order of things in the northern United States ; here our spring is mostly made up of sentiment connected with extended lists of sing- ing birds and of hurriedly blooming wild flowers; all the rest is weather—and plenty of it! January thaws, February snow-flurries, March gales, July heat, Decem- ber frosts, August thunder-showers, and November skies! All is out of order except the birds; they come in regular procession, and sing, day in and day out, in spite of the weather and apparently without a thought of the preposterous disagreements of the climate and the weather bureau! But the songs, what of them! why is the singer re- corded in all the books, but never—or hardly ever—his song? Well, the question is a difficult one to answer without finding fault with some one, so it would be best to make this little volume furnish the response. Here 1x PREFACE. it is, last from the publisher, but first from birds which have sung in the field and on the hillside for the past five years. Whose are the songs,mine? No, lam only the reporter who has listened attentively for a score of vernal seasons to the little feathered musicians of Na- ture’s great orchestra. The volume is literally a field- book filled with the musical sayings of American birds; I have taken no liberties with the scores, except to make a doubtful A or B no longer doubtful. Allisa literal transcription, not without certain puzzling phases, of course ; for who of us have never been bothered by the rapid performances of expert musicians! Naturally, therefore, some of my records are imperfect; indeed, it is safe to add that some singers sang a great deal more than I was able to put down on paper. I trust, however, that no bird lover will be disturbed by the remarkable records coming from the more talented songsters when he hears what they have done through the interposition ef the pianist. If he should doubt my record I would be pleased to introduce him to my bird (or perhaps some other one just as talented) in the field opposite my studio, or on the mountain-side behind it, in the wilds of New Hampshire. To those kind friends who have greatly assisted me by advice and service in the planning of this work I am glad to extend grateful acknowledgments. Mr. William Brewster has permitted me to sketch in water-color from specimens in his museum, Mr. Walter Deane has been generous in advice. Mr. Frank Chapman has given me ample facilities to sketch from specimens in the New York Museum of Natural History. Messrs, Lee and Shepard have kindly presented me with a copy of Mr. Cheney’s Wood Notes Wild, and granted per. mission to quote therefrom, Messrs. Houghton and Mifflin have allowed me to quote from those admirable little volumes of that charming writer and true nature- lover, Mr. Bradford Torrey.* Messrs, Ginn and Company *Mr. Torrey, above all other authors, has succeeded in succinctly describing the musical rhythm of the bird’s song, and has also used practical musical definitions. His writings are of inestimable value to one who pursues the study of bird music. x PREFACE. have permitted me to quote from William 8. Long’s School of the Woods. Also, from the books of Mr. Frank Chapman and Mr. W. E. D. Scott, as well as from the pamphlets of Mr. Ned Dearborn, and Mr. F. E. L. Beal, I have been glad to cull valuable opinions and certain ornithological statistics of indispensable interest. I have endeavored to paint the little songster in his true colors, and show him in some one of his character- istic positions, flying or singing. Some of my water- colors are satisfactorily interpreted by the three-color process, and others are not. One must not judge of the color of the bird altogether by his picture. The wonder is, that with limited red, yellow, and blue the plate- maker and printer so nearly approached the model. The pictures of the four Thrushes are well preserved, so are those of the Meadowlark, the Cuckoos, the Purple Finch, the Goldfinch, the Indigo Bunting, and the Red- winged Blackbird. Suffice it to say that when the art- ist gives the printer absolutely nothing but purity and delicacy of color to copy, he imposes upon him a task of no little difficulty,—a difficulty for which due allow- ance should be made in an appreciation of the result. _I do not use such color-terms as rufous, vinaceous, fuscous, and the like, when describing the bird’s colors, as it is doubtful whether anybody knows what they mean. Imagine yourself telling the painter to paint your house fuscous, or directing the dress-maker to line your garment with vinaceous! Presumably the orni- thologist and the botanist prefer to use a universal language; it has its advantages, so we will forgive them. Yet it would hit a scientist very hard, I suppose, to sug- gest that he was very unscientific outside of his pro- fession—and a trifle medieval! Otherwise, why does he call crimson, purple! In the matter of color and music, therefore, we will be scientific, and when the bird is crimson we will noé call him purple, but crimson, and when he sings G sharp we will not hunt around iou a syllable to represent it, but put it on the musical staft where it belongs! F, SCHUYLER MATHEWS, Boston, April, 1904. oe 4 ae A | leis . SecA 4 oy ih ae Byard oi. 4 iver | IPFA ee, :% Oe ae oe Asie i, ree a Crea a saa 4 Fee ; ie - ‘ - “*
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO THE REVISED AND ENLARGED
EDITION < : : ‘ : 4 ‘ Vv
PREFACE . . ‘ ; ‘ : : ; ix
ILLUSTRATIONS . ‘ A ; - Xvii
An INTRODUCTION TO BIRD Mouse. : oof i
A Musicat Key . ‘ - . (xk
THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE ¢ ae ; XXXVii
GLOSSARY . . , 3 : ¥ . xiii
ORDER GALLINE. GALLINACEOUS BIRDs:
Quail .. ‘ “ > . » : . 3
Partridge. . : : 7
ORDER RAPTORES Parrine Birps:
Screech Owl . 3 ‘ : ° ° * 70
Great Horned Owl . ; : : “tg
ORDER COCCYGES. CuCKOOS, ETC.:
Yellow-billed Cuckoo . ; . . « NES
Black-billed Cuckoo . 2 ‘ - .
ORDER PICI. WoopPECKERS, ETC.:
Downy Woodpecker . ; - 2I
Flicker, Golden-winged Woodpecker ; e, 43
ORDER MACROCHIRES. GOATSUCKERS, SwIFTs,
ETC.:
Whip-poor-will . : A ‘ ‘ s* .26
Night Hawk 4 = . e ; 2! “80
Chimney Swift . ‘ e a ae
Ruby-Throated Hutantigbird 4 : = 34
ORDER PASSERES. PERCHING BIRDs:
Kingbird . > . , ° ° » a
Phoebe ; . ‘ ° ° . i ae
Wood Pewee ‘ ° ° e ° + “38
Chebec ‘ . ° ° ° . ee 3
Blue Jay. ° - ‘ ° ° eae
Canada Jay. ° ° ° ° ° « 46
Crow . ° ° e ° ° . os /:47
Bobolink ., ° ° ° ° ° - 48
Cowbird . . ° . ° ° 53
Red-winged Blackbird A ° ° ° 54
Meadowlark : ; Z ‘ ° a) es
Orchard Oriole . : A ‘ « 63
CONTENTS.
ee
ORDER PASSERES. Prercuinc Birps—Continued.
Baltimore Oriole .
Purple Grackle
Bronzed Grackle .
Purple Finch ; :
American Goldfinch
Snow Bunting
Vesper Sparrow .
- Grasshopper Sparrow .
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow ‘ ‘
Field ee . . . ‘
Junco . -
Song Sparrow ;
Swamp Sparrow .- .
Chewink ‘ ; ;
Rose-breasted Grosbeak ’ ;
Indigo Bunting . ° >
Scarlet Tanager . : ‘
Cedar Waxwing . ‘ -
Red-eyed Vireo . ¢ °
Warbling Vireo :
Yellow-throated Vireo
Solitary Vireo ‘ ‘
White-eyed Vireo ; é
Black and White Warbler .
Golden-winged Warbler A °
Nashville Warbler ; , “
Northern Parula Warbler .
Cape May Warbler .
Yellow Warbler...
Black-throated Blue Warbler
a
Myrtle Warbler °
Magnolia Warbler : , . ; ?
Chestnut-sided Warbler. ‘ : .
Bay-breasted Warbler . , : ‘ »
Black-poll Warbler. ‘ ; , ;
Blackburnian Warbler. P ‘ , ,
Black-throated Green Warbler , ‘ .
xiV
CONTENTS.
ORDER PASSERES. PeErcHinGc Birps—Connnued.
PAGE
Pine Warbler : ° . . : - 194
Yellow Red-Poll.. . . ‘ = « 195
Prairie Warbler . ‘ x“ F p - 196
Oven-bird . 3 P . 7 - 197
Maryland Yellow-throas ‘ ° ° - 200
Yellow-breasted Chat . ro . oe e 2 03
Hooded Warbler . é‘ ° . ‘ « 204
Wilson’s Warbler : ; é . - 206
Canadian Warbler > ; ° ° ° 207
American Redstart . * F ° - 208
Brown Thrasher . > ° * » 213
Carolina Wren . ° : : , e .215
Bewick’s Wren . ° ; : é + 218
House Wren ‘ - ‘ a <..a%8
Winter Wren . - : ; ot 220
Short-billed Marsh Wren . ‘ . <2 aa2
Long-billed Marsh Wren . ; > +. {293
Brown Creeper . ‘ A - «tS
White-breasted N Hipich ‘ ; : + 226
Black-capped Chickadee - F . ET
Carolina Chickadee . . ; : =is ae
Hudsonian Chickadee . ; : ‘ “nae
Tufted Titmouse . : ‘ 4 . «. 834
Golden-crowned Kinglet ; ; Apes 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet . : , , +. 236
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher . : : ; xo ae
Wood Thrush — ‘ - ‘ ; ‘ « »-239
Veery . : ‘ ‘ ‘ ; « 244
Gray-cheeked Thrush : ‘ , - - 248
Bicknell’s Thrush . > ; 4 : he Fe
Olive-backed Thrush . 4 ‘ 3 « 2. #82
Hermit Thrush . . ‘ ; , e255
BIRDS OF WINTER, EARLY SPRING,AND LATE AUTUMN
ORDER RAPTORES. PREYING BIRDs:
Barn Owl . - ’ ; : ; - 269
Barred or Hoot Owl ’ , ° ‘ oS) a0
Snowy Owl . ; : ° ° ° mee 7 2
XV
CONTENTS
SUBORDER ALCYONES. KINGFISHERS:
Belted Kingfisher . : . ‘
ORDER FPICI. WOODPECKERS:
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
ORDER PASSERES. PERCHING BiIrRDs:
Alder Flycatcher .
Starling :
Evening Gocsbenk 2 “ ,
Pine Grosbeak . ‘ - :
Red Crossbill ; . 4 ,
White-winged Crossbill ‘ ;
Redpoll ‘ : - F ‘
Pine Sisken . ? : .
Ipswich Sparrow . ° ‘
Savannah Sparrow °
Tree Sparrow ; - .
Lincoln’s Sparrow ; ‘ .
Fox Sparrow : . A ;
Cardinal . ’ ; : :
Bohemian Waxwing
Philadelphia Vireo
Worm-eating Warbler . ;
Blue-winged Warbler . ‘
Tennessee Warbler ;
Water-Thrush
Louisiana Water-Thrush A
Kentucky Warbler : : ;
Connecticut Warbler . : *
Mourning Warbler ‘ : ;
Mockingbird é : 8
Robin . ; . > .
Bluebird ; . = - ~
274
275
276
: a. aoe
- ame
° . 280
° e B81
° i” ata
- » 283
: . £85
° . 286
° 5h ey
: - 288
° + "290
° «) 2a
° + “oa
° >. 206
a Rg Lae
298
300
301
302
304
305
. » . 307
- - 308
« 313
List oF SONG BIRDS OF THE PEMIGEWASSET Vateiry
WITH APPROXIMATE DATES OF ARRIVAL
Srx Maps RELATING TO THE MIGRATIONS OF
Brrps . 4 P ‘
INDEX . e Ps e - - °
317
. Facing 320
° ° 321
ILLUSTRATIONS
PINE GROSBEAK
(In color.)
_ BOB-WHITE
- (In color.)
PARTRIDGE
(Jn color.)
ScREECH OWL
(In color.)
GREAT HORNED OWL
(In color.)
BLACK-BILLED AND YELLOW-BILLED CuCKOOS
(Jn color.)
Downy WOODPECKER
Risen oe Wie. ho! Dae Oke Oe
(In color.)
WHIP-PoorR-WILL < DME ae Oe ees
(In color.)
FUUUUAMGS —5 6 eee rey mi
Comer Svar. es ot ee ce
enOnte, 5 6a a ee ee ee
Re 62 Sls. 5 ean fe! 9 wl ad ere
CHEBEC AND Woop PEWEE ..... «
Sites SF ai gS 55 ai es Bt ies oat
(In color.)
POOR TO i eee ee ee
Crow . . . . . . . . . . .
SROMORAES kar oo ie te) 6.6 a” @
(In color.)
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD . . .« «© « «
(In color.)
AIOE. Fal ook on Lien ws ceases
(Jn color.)
XVii
i
FACING
PAGE
Frontispiece
4
8
. . . 10
: 12
eA 16
* 20
* 22
StS, 8 26
. . ” 32
. . . . 34
. . . 36
. . . 38
Som ee 44
. . . 46
. . . 48
. . . 50
. . . 54
ILLUSTRATIONS
BALTIMORE ORIOLE AND ORCHARD ORIOLE . . .
(In color.)
AMERICAN GOLDFINCH AND PurpPLE Fincu .
(In color.)
SNOWFLAKES SP inett ert a in
(In color.)
VESPER SPARROW AND GRASSHOPPER SPARROW
(In color.)
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW AND WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW .
(In color.)
FIELD SPARROW AND CHIPPING SPARROW
(In color.)
INDIGO BUNTING AND JUNCO . i .-% 2. « e« «»
(In color.)
SonG SPARROW AND SWAMP SPARROW
(In color.)
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK AND CHEWINK . ... .
(In color.)
SCARLET TANAGER AND MATE . -
(In color.)
CEDAR WAXWING . .. ..« + >
RED-EYED VIREO AND YELLOW-THROATED VIREO . . .
(In color.)
WARBLING VIREO ....
WHITE-EYED VIREO AND SOLITARY VIREO . .. .
(In color.)
Biack 4np Waitt WaRBter io ..°4. 6 oe ee
NASHVILLE WARBLER AND GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER
(In color.)
CaPE MAY WARBLER AND NORTHERN PARULA WARBLER
(In color.)
BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER AND YELLOW WARBLER
(In color.)
- MYRTLE WARBLER AND MAGNOLIA WARBLER . . .
(In color.)
XVili
PACING
PAGE
64
74
84
86
90
102
108
- 110
174
- 180
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
BAyY-BREASTED WARBLER AND CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER. 184
{In color.)
BLACKHVGLE AAMEEER 2 on) Se ae a ere eee) 6 188
BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER AND BLACK-THROATED GREEN WAR-
i ee re ng Ss lta ad Ss oe Rou ae hoe
(In color.)
REDSTART AND PINE WARBLER . . . » « «+ « «+ « 194
(In color.)
PRAIRIE WARBLER AND YELLOW RED-POLL . .... . 196
(In color.) ;
MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT AND OVENBIRD fps eile ee
(In color.)
HoopED WARBLER AND YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT ie ia Bee
(In color.)
CANADIAN WARBLER AND WILSON’S WARBLER . .. . . 208
(In color.) .
CATBUR ee ew 0 6 eh eke ish Ve ogee 212
BROWN THRASHER . . « «+ «© «© © «© « « « « ~ 214
(In color.)
WINTER WREN AND CAROLINA WREN . 2. 2 « « : 3. “2l6
(In color.)
SESW BM ye Sie sl oh Delage 8 Be SOEs
Witre-nuxasrep Nuraatcu i ae ae eee oe 6 se alee
CHICKADEES Sys, Les ow, PSP Ae Secale Ma Notte. We ae ae
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET AND PROTHONOTARY WARBLER . 234
(In color.)
FUee- CROWNED KINGIRYT b0-ciy se ee Se a te 2
(In color.)
Woop THRUSH AND VEERY . .. 6 « ; O85 ea iO
(In color.)
BUELL TURUER ot ST le el a ee eee 380
HERMIT THRUSH AND OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH . . . . . 254
(In color )
ROW Via ghoul gta. obedience“ s | BEO
DOGEED MEMGVISGRR Gas of ce ait hee oe we BTR
Xix
ILLUSTRATIONS
Bvenine GROSSEAR «- 6. el Ha Sar VOR, a
(In color.)
Rup CROOSBILE » 0 “wis 6 a pw ee 6s “eh ers
(In color.)
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL WE est Sear
(In color.)
Pine Siskin AND RED-POLL .-. «5 © © 6 6
(In color.)
Fou Seanmow 37 i «0: oc. eee De tere ee
(In color.)
CARDINAL: cf pels! “eee et oe ee
(In color.)
BLUE-WINGED WARBLER AND WORM-EATING WARBLER
(In color)
WATER-THRUSE Coe ie (eis whe) 0) woe
(In color.) -
Kesrock’ WaReGEe 326580. ca bi ees
(In color.) :
MOCKING DMD = 0.5 ere ee ee. 8 ee ee
(In color.)
BLUEBIRD: AND ROBBERS 6 a. 4 eee eee
(In color.)
xX
282
288
AN INTRODUCTION TO BIRD MUSIC.
There is a general idea among many who are inter-
ested in birds that musical notation employed as a
means to express a bird’s song is nearly worthless. Pos-
sibly those who are most skeptical in this regard are not
the ones who read music readily. If so, I shall hope
that the musical key and glossary which follow will
prove of great assistance in making plain those simpler
principles of music necessary to a proper understanding
not only of the musical records within this volume, but
of the character of the songs they represent. Of course
it is a more or less problematic matter to deal with wild
music. It is not amenable in any respect tolaw. How-
ever, the question involved is not whether the bird’s
song is radically different from ours—we may admit
that point—but whether it may be truthfully and logi-
cally recorded upon the musical staff. That question,
it is the object of this book to answer affirmatively, and
with due regard for all the difficulties involved.
Syllables alone can not express the song of a bird; they
are wholly inadequate, if not extremely unscientific. A
syllable may be spoken or sung in any tone of voice,
therefore, it is useless in locating a tone. Such conso-
nants as Q, 8, and Z are of use only in defining a partic-
ular quality of tone. Now, as bird songs are composed
of a certain number of related tones and a limited
degree of pitch, there is but one way to record them;
that must be upon the musical staff!
As a matter of fact, syllables are very useful in ex-
pressing rhythm or time; but even here they some-
times .fail. For instance, one of the best syllabic
examples of rhythm is the Old Sam Peabody, Peabody,
Peabody, attributed to the White-throated Sparrow.
Naturally, one would pronounce the name Pea-bo-dy
evenly; but the bird does not sing this trisyllabic note
that way; he sings the first of the three tones to three
beats, the second to one beat, and the third to two beats.
Only the musical staff can express that fact accurately!
XX1
AN INTRODUCTION TO BIRD MUSIC,
Probably a few birds do sing the three tones evenly but
they are exceptions to the rule.
Why each species should have developed and retained
an established form of song it is not difficult to under-
stand. The habits, associations, and environment of the
bird have had much to do with the formation of his
music, and education all the rest. By education I mean
that gradual schooling of the imitative faculty, which,
.onscious or not, has resulted in the attainment of mu-
sical tones at once pleasing to the ear. The bird sings
first for love of music, and second ‘‘ for the love of the
lady.” Advisedly I put the lady second, for, if he did
not love music first he would not have sung to her, and
birds, like the rest of us, are a trifle selfish. What we
like most we think others will like as well, hence, in a
moment of unselfishness we share the object of our
selfishness!
It is a fallacy to suppose that the music of the wild
bird has been, or is, unprogressive; through thousands of
years it has advanced to its present form, yet there is
every evidence to-day that the progression has been
- nthil ad rem! The fact is, the bird has not arrived;
there is still no point to his song! He makes a fine
start, but he nearly always fails to finish on the tonic, or,
for that matter, anywhere at all. This, however, does
not signify a want of progressiveness; it rather suggests
a particular form of limitation. He has been imitating
his father or his companion, faults and all, and he has
not brain enough to understand that the far-reaching
law of music demandsa finale. Through two, yes, three
long seasons (long fur him) he has been learning his song,
imitating something he has heard, adding his own notes
and touches of expression here and there, and settling
upon a form which, in principle, will never change.
His first impression is a lasting one, and he will never
depart from it though he will make a marked, progres-
sive improvement in his handling of the theme.
Every bird sings his own song; no two sing exactly
alike. A sharp and retentive ear for musical form can
not fail to recognize those subtile differences of tone and
expression which make the song of every singer unique.
XXil
AN INTRODUCTION TO BIRD MUSIC,
There are, of course, similarities in the songs of birds of
the same species, but the differences, nevertheless, are as
distinct as those by means of which the ornithologist
has separated Bicknell’s Thrush from the Gray-cheeked
Thrush! There are immense differences in the individual
songs of the Vireos, Finches, Orioles, Tanagers, and
Thrushes. For lack of intimate acquaintance with the
music of a particular bird we think he sings just like
the next one—why! do all roosters have the same crow?
No, any farmer knows better than that. And does the
youthful rooster sing as well as the old one? Never!
Only one thing stands as unalterable in the song of a
given species,—that is, mechanical rhythm ; the rooster’s
crow, therefore, will ever be thus: ——- —— ——
We think there is a vast mediocrity of singers in
Nature’s chorus, and only occasionally a supreme soloist!
‘It is scarcely so; the master singer, I fear is often so
labeled without that wider acquaintance with the many
talented singers which would cause us to hesitate before
we hang the card over his neck. I would, I must, spend
an hour or more in the piano warerooms trying instru-
ments before I pronounced judgment on a particular
one, and in some respects the choice would be purely a
matter of taste. I wonder whether that delicate instru-
ment in the throat of the Hermit Thrush differs so
widely from the one made by the hand of man, that the
Great Designer succeeded in turning it out like a mere
machine, not one whit different from others he had
created! No! never does Nature repeat herself; it is
not one vast mediocre chorus, it is an endless variety
of soloists whose voices, filled with tone-color, redundant
in) melody, replete with expression, and strong in indi-
viduality, make up the orchestra which performs every
year the glad spring symphony. The Hermit is the
great tone artist, the Red-eyed Vireo is the obligato
accompanist, the Song Sparrow is the melodist, and the
Partridge controls the drums. But every individual
sings his own song !
XXili
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‘
A MUSICAL KEY.
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO THOSE WHO DO NOT READ
MUSIC.
Success in identifying a bird’s song depends more upon
the ability of the ear to discriminate differences of
rhythm than differences of tone; for, every species fol-
lows its own unalterable law in rhythmic time, no matter
how different are the songs of birds of the same species.
This is an apparently irrefragable principle which is the
key to an immediate recognition of the singer.
But there are those who entertain a contrary opinion.
Mr. Maurice Thompson, in Sylvan Secrets, writes: ‘‘ There
is no such element as the rhythmic beat in any bird-song
that Ihave heard. Modulation and fine shades of ‘ color’
as the musical critic has it, together with melodious
phrasing take the place of rhythm. . . . The absence of
true rhythm probably is significant of a want of power to
appreciate genuine music, the bird’s comprehension com-
passing no more than the value of sweet sounds merely
as such.” Now if the writer means what he says about
the ‘‘rhythmic beat ” he is certainly all astray, but if he
is confusing mechanical time with the rhythm or ‘‘ metre”
of poetry he is not only wrong but misleading in his use
of terms, for no English word expresses rhythmus vetter
than the word ‘‘ time,” and I shall presently demonstrate
the fact that birds know how to keep time perfectly.
But metre is a different thing, it implies proportion, and
of that the wild bird naturally knows but little.
The most obvious explanation of a ‘‘ rhythmic beat”
is the drum beat. Here it is:
rT | Mitt TT P) ry toa TT 1
Pytvieis afatitstat alt f
Any child would know what you were representing if
you tapped that way on the table. Now the question at
once arises, is there any bird that sings in accordance
RXV
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j : me)
ay sree oy) vo 16) BY + =
$y vPojubisoyyu 2 = s = c y 8
‘alto h.10n/ veo 4/2} au ov ¢ = _— ©
wopey pue yybis ay) vo 5 = = o) c= m4
Gieys sr fay fuoge wy" = | > is
SS Ee ¥ ¥ 4 To Y ¥ Rie ge { ON v wc) 1 +O ¥
i) me a OO ———
eV ot a Wea ee Oa: 2 Oi Ora VDT
Uv v 0 eo)
MIDDLE C |U
DIAGRAM SHOWINC RELATIVE POSITIONS
OF NOTES ON STAFF AND KEYBOARD.
XXV1
A MUSICAL KEY.
with time ora ‘‘ rhythmic beat”? Yes, not only one bird,
but forty! Here is the song of the Black-billed Cuckoo:
oS 6 ph ioe Ore bate 6 6 OF, TIS. 0.6: s'0' 4) we ou> ope abe
And here isis POON e's oi 4's 0. bes. 6) 9) 00 0,0 88
And here is the Flicker ....cccccscoccccccccecece
And the Black-throated Green Warbler .°. .e-s
And the Nashville Warbler .. .. «2 «ce cocce
And the Whip-poor-will . .. owe ecjorg eee
Not one of the little fellows above ever gets his rhythm
mixed up with that of the other fellow.
The next step is to become familiar with those mechani-
cal divisions of tone which the musical staff represents.
Tones of course are separated by regular intervals.*
The simplest demonstration of well-separated tones in
connection with the rhythmic beat will be found in the
song of the Peabody Bird :
> > >
d | Coir tir co
Old Sam Pea-body, Pea-body, Pea-body,
This little fellow frequently sings an interval of ‘ta
fifth,” that is, he sings A, perhaps, and jumps over B,C,
and D, to E. The musical staff shows this as clearly to
one who can not read music as it does to one who can:
, This time beat 1s the one commonly used by writers,
>>
. | a.
is i (36 1& 2% 38 4b S&6e 16 26 36(46
6 ; 6&
But ¢ 1s time beat is probably more accurate.
- 2 e . —
ee ~
/ soa oi 162 & 36 4656 6& 162 & ‘a
4%
The Signs Is ‘the cated form. 7 &
Moderato >
2 a.
ay
oe
+ +
7, *7 = = : : ;.
L?)
“SF
i
T
‘old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody.
* The little bird does not always correctly heed his intervals, he
very often sings sharp or flat; but, strictly speaking, no person
XXVii
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DIAGRAM OF NOTE VALUES ETC.
XXVIlil
A MUSICAL KEY.
Economy of space demands the present compact ap-
pearance of the musical staff ; each line as well as each
space is used to represent some one of the keys of the
piano keyboard. The diagram of staff on page xxii,
shows exactly the relationship of the treble staff and
keyboard. Ihave drawn only the four octaves belong-
ing to the upper half of the keyboard, beginning with
middle C (close to the keyhole of the piano) and ending
with the fourth C above it, because within that compass
lie all the notes with which we have to do relative to
bird-music. Of these four octaves the lowest one (be-
ginning with middle C) is entirely below one’s whistle, in
fact it is extremely difficult to whistle the second D
above middle C so one can be heard any distance away !
As a matter of fact birds’ voices are pitched so high,
that most of them are somewhere within the compass of
the last, highest octave on the piano, and many of them
continue to the other side of the wood-work! This is the
case with all of the Warblers. Even the Peabody Bird
sings Old on the highest F, and for Sam and Peabody
(see the song diagram) jumps an interval of a fifth to the
topmost C of the piano. Whistle that if you can, and
you will have the correct pitch of this bird’s song.
Nearly all birds have the ability to jump an interval and
hit a tone with a tolerable degree of accuracy.
The diagram shows the extent of the various intervals.
The so-called interval of a minor third, common in the
Field Sparrow's song, is that which includes only one
ebony key between the three ivory ones. For instance,
D, E, F, and E, F, G, and A, B, C, and B, C, D, include but
a single ‘‘ ebony,” in their combinations ; all other thirds
include two, and are called major in contradistinction to
minor thirds. The song diagram will show the Cuckoo
sings a major and the Field Sparrow a minor third.
The so-called slur, or dash connecting two or more
notes, is of utmost importance in expressing their char-
does or can sing with a mathematically accurate pitch. We simply
come a great deal nearer to the note A than the bird does. Itis
wholly a matter of degree. So it is well to remember at the outset
that there are some very dubious tones which come from Nature’s
orchestra.
XXix
C-
if
—_
Me ET eae
Indig . ‘
ive
TM
CDEF CABCDETGABC DE PGA BC DEF 'GAB:C
oy
Main’s |whiistlle
aS CO ET SS a ee
ong) Spé row
tole
Riobin
ermit Thirush
9
ar. o
Ad
ing he be:
Thras
YVcreecnt
These records represent the song
compass of individual singers
and not the range of voice in the
species, As some birds are likely
fo sing higher or lower than these
particular ones, the species range
MIDDLE C is atrifie greater, |
DIACRAM SHOWING THE PITCH OF TWENTY ONE
B/RD SONCS RELATIVELY WITH THE KEYBOARD.
ULL
XXX
A MUSICAL KEY.
acter. The explanatory diagram showing the values of
notes demonstrates also the value of the slur in connec-
tion with the syllables Pea-bod-y which the Peabody
Bird sings. In the case of this slur connecting two notes
separated by an interval as in the Wood Pewee’s song,
it indicates that the whistle touches by even gradations
all the intermediate tones. On the contrary, a simple
dot over a note expresses the idea that the tone must be
given in a percussive manner.* My ‘‘sawtooth” sign is
borrowed in part from the trill sign in music, it is in-
tended to express a double tone, which may be demon-
strated by whistling the note indicated and humming
simultaneously the bass tone at G or G flat, the second
one below middle C, or, for that matter, any deep tone
convenient to the whistler. The songs of the Scarlet
Tanager and Yellow-throated Vireo are strongly char-
acterized by this overtone.
That various birds sing in different keys and in differ-
ent measures of time goes without saying. The key,
however, is a very unimportant matter; but it is neces-
sary to know how it is expressed.
The natural key is the octave C to ¢ (with its inter-
mediate harmonic tones).
Key of G=1 sharp, begins a fifth above C, at G, and
sharps the F.
Key of D = 2 sharps, begins a fifth above G, at D, and
sharps F and C,
Key of A = 3 sharps, begins a fifth above D, at A, and
sharps C, F, and G.
Key of E = 4 sharps, begins a fifth above A, at E, and
sharps F, G, C, and D.
Key of B = 5 sharps, begins a fifth abeve E, at B, and
sharps C, D, F, G, and A.
Key of F = 1 flat, begins a fifth below C, at F, and
flats B.
Key of B flat = 2 flats, begins a fifth below F, at B flat,
and flats B and E.
* In a few instances a dot, and a dash connecting two notes appear
together ; this indicates that the tone is whistled suddenly and is
seft as suddenly for the next one, so the twoare pretty closely con
gmected. (See the Oriole’s music.)
XXXi
CDE F-GABCDEFGABCDEFGABCDE FGABC
tT} Te ip
1 |” at Cae
E 0 Sea.
BS}
i
er
| we
Ea ee a EE,
om
7)
*
UG
Be a Set ae
Ss GE Ri RG
TAT WS
eS
a a
a ae
Ars Ses
G
arbliing |\Virjeo
ack+thr|Gre
ee, a ae a a
7 co Ee
: :
= A a] SS
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= > Ss > ®
A$" se § Bas
x 7 &
Rzeesz acs
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ie SSS 8 UF = —
% gq = vy
s i ey: es
e $
i Q Ss
= ve oe
Q = SS
y 2
= e
9
breasted
Wh
|_____ The first three records are conspicu-
|___ ous instances of a comprehensive
voice lacking determinate pitch in
the higher register Many other bird
mIDDLEC yoices are similarly indefinite.
DIAGRAM SHOWING THE PITCH OF FIFTEEN
BIRD SONGS RELATIVELY WITH THE KEYBOARD.
XXXii
A MUSICAL KEY,
Key of E flat = 3 flats, begins a fifth below B flat, at
E flat, and flats A, B, and E.
Key of A flat = 4 flats, begins a fifth below E flat, at
A flat, and flats A, B, D, and E.
Key of D flat =5 flats, begins a fifth below A flat, at
D flat, and flats D, E, G, A, and B.
I have no records of bird music on the keys six
sharps, or six flats which are identical with each other.
The signs of sharps or flats belonging to a given key are
placed at the beginning of the musical staff.
Nearly all birds sing in strictly measured time, many
sing a perfect bar, or measure, and a considerable num.-
ber, several bars. The Whip-poor-will, for instance,
sings an endless succession of bars in accurate six-eight
time, that is, within each bar (which is marked off on
the staff by simple perpendicular lines) will be found
six eighth notes or their equivalent in notes or pauses,
thus* :
(2'!44 Vivace. 2 _ ; 2 3 2
s y Y mn “t
=]
"2
¢ — Whip-poor-will, Whippoorwill, Whip-poor-will, Whip-poor-mill,
The time § is therefore placed alongside of the key sig-
nature of one flat (which is B flat) which means the
bird sang in $ time in the key of F. Again, the Black-
billed Cuckoo will frequently sing in two-four time, and
we will find two eighth notes and a quarter rest (all of
which is the equivalent of two fourth notes) in one bar:
dh Andante, A. Ritard, 2. ‘A.
2 } oe | Yee Se, | Dl A S | Fs ae | : i he Se
rapt O26 at a FeO)
SS An eee ee o4@ ead ee zd eed
Cou-c00, Cou-C00, cou-Cu-c00, COU-COO, COU-CU-COQ, COU-CU-CO0,
* Not infrequently the first bar of a song contains but one beat,
represented by a note or notes ; in that case the other beats neces-
XXXili
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ILLUSTRATIONS OF MUSICAL SI@N8,
A MUSICAL KEY. |
And yet again, some other bird may seem to sing as
many as six eighth notes, or their equivalent, to a bar,
as. for instance, the Song Sparrow, a great variety of
whose music will be found among the pages farther
along devoted to him.
The fact is, no matter how doubtfully complete the
song of the little bird proves to be, there is no question
whatever about the singer keeping time! He can not
sustain a melody of any considerable length, nor can he
conform to our conventional ideas of metre, but he can
keep time perfectly, and a knowledge of his rhythmic
method, is, I believe, the strongest factor in his identifi-
cation by the ear !
This matter of time-keeping is one of the most import.
ant elements of music. Naturally, therefore, the drum
being a musical instrument, I begin this key by using
its beat as the best marked illustration of mechanical
rhythm. Now, if we return to this illustration of the
drum-beat we will see that within a minute of time a
drummer is supposed to keep the run of one hundred
and twenty time beats, and to strike his drum rhyth-
mically, twice skipping a time beat and then three times
not skipping it. Although a singing bird does not keep
this mechanical time with any greater degree of accu-
racy than the artist pianist or vocalist, he does keep it
with all the accuracy that art demands, and that is more
than sufficient for our purpose. I have consequently
placed over a great number of the bird songs, the metro-
nome time in which they were sung. People who are
undrilled in music are dreadfully heedless of time ; they
rarely if ever give a note ‘‘its face value.” To use an
apt simile a dollar passes for fifty cents, and vice versa !
This will never do in music; we must heed the relative
values of notes and rests and movements in bird songs
sary to complete the bar will be represented by the notes or rests
in the last bar which will also lack the full complement of beats.
The first and last bars, then, will together form but one complete
bar. This condition is caused by the song beginning on an unac-
cented note which is usually short and merely introductory to the
more important one which begins the next bar. (See the records
of Oriole’s music for an instance.)
XXXV
A MUSICAL KEY.
or else we must forever remain in ignorance of their
Individual character. Wemay value a half or a quarter
note according to our discretion, but once having de-
cided upon that value we must sustain it.
If one does not possess that interesting and simple
little instrument called Maelzel’s Metronome, the follow-
ing instructions will serve in the construction of an
excellent substitute, Attach a small weight to the end
of a common tape measure with half, quarter, and
eighth inches marked thereon; a penknife suspended
crosswise (not lengthwise) will do. The following table
will then show the equation of inches and metronome
beats ; the last are indicated by the number per minute :
60 = 39} inches 112 = 112 inches
66= 3817 “ 116 = 10} *
72 = 268 « 1200= 9} «
80 = 218 “ 126 = 8} «
88 = 18} <“ 132 = 7 «
92= 164 “ 188 = 7 «
96 = 15, « 144= 68 “
100 = 143 « 2= 6 “
104= 188 “ 160 = 5g
108 = 193“ 168= 43 “
THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE THRUSHES
It may seem rather extravagant praise to sum up the
song of the Hermit Thrush in the unqualified terms I have
used on pages 256-57, but I am confident that a close stu-
dent of his music must surely arrive at the conclusion that
it possesses a subtle charm which rarely if ever distin-
guishes the songs of other birds. Theodore Roosevelt has
expressed himself most emphatically on that point, he
writes: “In melody, and above all in that finer, higher
melody where the chords vibrate with the touch of eternal
sorrow, it (the Nightingale) cannot rank with such singers
as the Wood Thrush and Hermit Thrush. The serene,
ethereal beauty of the Hermit’s song, rising and falling
through the still evening under the archways of hoary
mountain forests that have endured from time everlasting;
the golden leisurely chiming of the Wood Thrush sounding
on a June afternoon, stanza by stanza, through sun-flecked
groves of tall hickories, oaks, and chestnuts—with these
there is nothing in the Nightingale’s song to compare.”
I wrote here, years ago, in similar vein: ‘‘The passionate
and plaintive notes of the Nightingale apparently have no
place in the Hermit’s song; our gifted Thrush sings more of
the glory of life and less of its tragedy, more of the joy of
heaven and less of the passion of earth. That is a purely
human point of view all the more significant because one
bird sings to the European, and the other to the American
ear.”” (See page 257.)
To sum it up in a few words, no other bird has developed
what is plainly an intelligent use of a musical scale aptly
fitted for expressive song—the so-called Pentatonic Scale.
We have become so familiar with the two comprehensive,
modern scales, the Chromatic which includes all the tones
within the octave, and the Diatonic which, in the key of
C, is represented by the sav ivories of the piano keyboard
XXXVil
THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE THRUSHES.
that we fail to appreciate the expressiveness of a more
limited one. But there is a third and primitive mode com-
mon to all folk-song, sometimes called the Scotch scale,
which is perfectly represented by five of the ebonies of
the piano. There is, however, considerable latitude in the
GAB pF
choice of five tones within the octave. Here is the scale:
nPentatonic. Key Gh
Here it is again in F, A minor, and G:
The Pentatonie scale of the Hermit Thrush,
Q
er. Ee | ee Beat P-3
je
Three positions on the staffwith but one signature
Thus, by naively avoiding B flat in the key of F, and F
sharp in the key of G the early musician could make the
signature of the key of C answer for three additional keys,
the third being A minor the so-called relative minor of the
key of C. The result is significant, for one should remem-
ber that these are primitive modes upon which has been
based nearly all music whether it be of bird or man. Our
musical ancestors therefore tuned their instruments ap-
proximately to the key of C, and by adhering to a penta-
tonic scale could palm off no end of tonal variety upon the
not too discriminating primeval ear.
XXXViil
5
THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE THRUSHES.
Our Hermit has not progressed beyond that quaint,
primitive scale; just there he has reached his own limita-
tion, why should we expect more? Indeed we may well
marvel at the skillful use of so expressive a scale by so tiny
a brain. The Thrush is a pygmy beside which the Scotch
piper is an immense giant; comparisons of their music are
out of place here, but it is sufficient to say the American bird
has outwhistled the piper with his own Scotch pentatones.
For some years I had wondered why the song of the Her-
mit was—at least to my ears—reminiscent of Scottish
melody; finally a close scrutiny of my innumerable nota-
tions taken afield revealed the nature of the limited scale;
here is its transcription: please notice that the five keys
Hermit Thrush. Various keys § the Pentatonre scale.
C1 _-@f-Aminor2,-@-F 3 Eminor 4 Dminor5S
t+ sft gift ry
££ 2a
Pd f pa Zit e
{HH | aa
yr
Whih but one signature
require but one signature, and also, that the following five
songs confined to the scales and the keys as above distinctly
suggest the character of Scottish melody:
“3%
tek
LI
ye. 2 3
Various themes o the scale and keys preceding.
This scale is by no means a peculiar possession of the
Scotch; Dvorak used it in the Largo movement of his New
World Symphony, and in his popular Humoresque, Op.
101, No. 7. The scale is also characteristic of our southern
Negro melody, and of Stephen Foster’s beautiful and
pathetic songs. A quaint old melody entitled a Northern
Refrain* by Charles E. Horn of New York, 1838, contains
* New York so late as the year 1864 was famous for its negro
chimney-sweeps. The title of this songis: ‘‘A Northern Refrain,
suggested from a well-known New York Carol, sung with enthusiastic
XXXix
THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE THRUSHES.
a most admirable example of the pentatonic scale in its
crooning street call of the old-time negro chimney-sweep
of that city:
Observe-the G sharp in the ascending scale which replaces
the F in the descending scale. That is an absolutely con-
sistent pentatonic variation which is employed by the
Thrush in themes 1 and 3 where he sings the semitone E
instead of the tone D in scales one would be justified in
thinking should consist of C, D, F, A, C and F, A, C, D, F,
(see also theme 1 and other pentatonic forms on page 260).
Although the Nightingale frequently touches upon this
expressively scale there is no evidence that he is able to
amplify it with the ability which distinguishes the Hermit
Thrush. The foreign songster possesses a wonderful voice,
the American songster a wonderfully constructed song.
Often the Wood Thrush resorts to the pentatonic form
applause by Mrs. C. E. Horn. The words written expressly for her
by G. P. Morris, Esq. The melody and arrangement composed and
respectfully dedicated to The St. Nicholas Society by Charles E.
Horn, New York. Published by Davis & Horn, 1838.’ Hornin
those days was a celebrated musician and composer formerly con-
nected with the Princess’s Theatre, London. He was finally conduc-
tor of the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston. George Pope Morris
was none other than the poet who wrote the famous ‘‘ Woodman,
Spare that Tree.”’
xl
THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE THRUSHES.
but again makes no attempt to use it in full as the Hermit
does, witness his scales 4 and 5 in this notation:
Scales of the eed Thrush
4s PEP lle a
== am. | B26 | |Pel | i lg haat
|_| @ rd | Y a et ey AN |
fA) | & The
Ve majer RO ces
“Triad; major, minor. Dimd seventh. Pentatonic........-
The Wood Thrush is generally content to render variations
upon the components of the triad and the diminished
seventh; beyond these it is apparent he is unable to progress.
But the Olive-back, like the Hermit, has advanced to a
more extended musical form and works that to its limit.
Here is a progressive harmonic setting of his primitive
scale which is confined to minor thirds—or something
wonderfully like them—within the limit of the diminished
seventh:
re =
©
en eet = ae oar
_£ 1 | ad ix
marae ji Ebr } | ae
es ae ea
If one begins at any point on the piano keyboard and
progresses upward skipping two keys and striking the
third, of course counting in the ebonies, one will eventuate
upon one of the three forms recorded above; there are only
three, no more. This is another primitive scale at which
both man and bird arrived during some period in the
development of their musical faculties. Whatever the
Olive-back may sing which is not in strict accordance with
this scale is sure to be merely a modification of it.
As for the Veery, although one must translate his music
into the chromatic scale, he does not really follow but
sprawls over it with a weird harmonic charm heedless of all
musical intervals.. His tones are so slurred and mixed
xli
THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE THRUSHES.
that the effect is one of a graceful, descending glissando,
thus:
vay
7. ss
i ee |
f >
a
No definite scale
None of the 'Thrushes’ songs can be fully heard at a dis-
tance greater than seventy feet or so from the singer. There
are too many charming overtones and undertones which
otherwise must be missed, and what is more to the point,
the musical scale is not in evidence. The following record
of a Hermit’s song is ample testimony to the fact:
Incomplete theme of Hermit Thrush
Q Dh i
4 7
A bil D i
iA\’ py | fa
S
This was taken from the highway in Campton, N. H., a
little less than a quarter of a mile from the point in the
woods where the bird sang, July 1, 1918, and again a year
later. A near record of the same bird’s song included four
more notes, distinct, but softer in tone and more rapidly
delivered.
There can be no question whatever about the actuality
of these scales upon which the music of the Thrushes and
other advanced singing birds is based. I use the term
music instead of song advisedly for the latter implies mel-
ody, and it is an indisputable fact that most of the so-
called songs of the feathered singers are not melodic but are
of the nature of free fantasias more or less confined to a
very limited form at best never extended beyond the
pentatonic scale—a scale which is sufficient for the expres-
sion of the most beautiful music the world has ever heard.
xlii
A GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS COMMONLY
USED IN THE NOTATIONS.
Accel. or Accelerando. Faster and faster.
Acciaccatura. A short note which is crushed against
the principal note, as it were (i. e., both struck ai
the same instant), but which is instantly released
and the principal key held.
Adagio. Slow.
Ad libitum. At pleasure.
Affettuoso. Tenderly ; with feeling.
Agitato. With agitation.
Allegretto. A little quick; not so quick as allegro.
Allegro. Quick ; cheerful, joyful.
Andante. The same as Moderato; going at a moderate
Animato, With animation.
Ben. Well, good.
Cadenza. A more or less elaborate flourish of indefinite
form, introduced immediately preceding the close
of the composition.
Cantabile. In a graceful, singing style.
Chromatic Scale. All the tones, intermediate and dia-
tonic, in successive order.
Con. With; as, con brio, with spirit.
Cres. or Crescendo. Gradually increasing in strength
or power.
Dacapo. From the beginning.
Da capo al Fine. From the beginning to the end,
Delicato. Delicately.
Diatonic Scale. The five whole tones and two semi-
tones of any key, in successive order.
Dim. or Diminuendo. Gradually diminishing.
Dolce. Sweetly.
Dot. A point placed after a note or rest which adds one
half to the rhythmical value of the note or rest.
xliii
GLOSSARY.
Dynamics. The force of musical sounds, The degrees
range from pp., which is the softest, through p. m.
and f. to ff., which is the loudest,
Finale. }
ES The end.
Forte. Loud,
Fortissimo. Very loud.
Fuoco, Fire, energy.
Glissando. Playing a rapid passage on the piano by
sliding the tips of the fingers along on the keys,
Interval. The difference of pitch between two tones.
Largo. Slow.
Legato. Connected ; each tone of a phrase being con-
tinued until the next is heard.
Lento. Slow.
Marcato. Marked.
Moderato, Going at a moderate pace,
Phrase. A short tone-chain which makes sense, but
not complete sense,
Pianissimo. Very soft.
Portamento. A gliding of the voice from one tone to
another.
Presto. Quickly.
Rallent. or Rallentando. Gradually slower and softer.
Ritard. or Ritardando. Slackening the time.
Scherzando, Playfully ; sportively,.
Sempre, Always.
Sforzando. With emphasis on one particular tone;
forced.
Sostenuto. Sustained and smooth.
Staccato. Short and distinct; detached.
Syncopation. The displacement of the usual accent,
either by cutting it away from the commonly ac-
cented beat, and driving it over to that part of a
measure not usually accented, or by prolonging a
tone begun in a weak beat past the instant when
the usual accent should occur,
Theme.. A simple melody on which variations are
made, :
xliv
GLOSSARY.
Tonic. The key-tone
- Tremolo. A note made to quiver or shake.
Triad. A chord consisting of three tones—i.e., the
tonic with its third and its fifth.
Trill. A rapid alternation of two contiguous tones.
Triplets. Three equal tones performed in the time of
one beat.
Vivace. Quickly ; sprightly.
xv
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FIELD BOOK OF
WILD BIRDS AND THEIR MUSIC.
BOB-WHITE.
ORDER GALLINZ. GALLINACEOUS BIRDS.
_ Family Tetraonide.
This family includes the Quail, Partridge, and Prairie
Hen, etc., all game birds which rely upon their protective
coloring for concealment from enemies. As a conse-
quence, they do not fly unless compelled to do so, and
then the noise or whirr of their concave, stiff-feathered
wings commonly distracts and startles the pursuer, and
gives the birds a better chance to escape. Asa rule, the
family is not gifted with musical calls, but in the broadest
sense of the word the crow of the barnyard Chanticleer
and the whistle of the Bob-white are among some of the
most suggestive and beautiful music of Nature.
Bob-white Bob-white is one of Nature’s best evi-
parece dences of her principle of protective color-
virginianus 12g}; one might easily step upon the tail of
L. 10.00 inches the bird, mistaking it for some of the old,
Allthe year last winter’s leaves—if the tail remained
in place long enough! It is almost impossible to enter
the thicket or wood frequented by’ a covey of Quail
without experiencing the sensation of being thoroughly
startled yourself and of putting to confusion a whole
community of peaceful dwellers, for suddenly, with-
out the slightest warning, six or eight panic-stricken
creatures appear almost directly under foot, and in hot
haste fly for their lives. That would scarcely happen if
it were not for the protective coloring ; the bird knows it
can rely on this and possibly escape detection, therefore
flight is a last resort—and one treads close to the tail!
The colors of the bird are an ingenious mixture of dead-
leaf tints—brown, russet, gray, and white. The throat,
region in front of and over the eye, white ; upper parts
tawny brown, russet, dark gray, and buff; neck quite
dark bordering on the white throat-patch, then fading
gradually into a mottled region of ruddy brown a trifle
pinkish, gray, and black ; under parts gray-white barred
with black ; sides chestnut broken by gray-white spots
and margins of black ; tail rather insignificant, and an
FAMILY Tetraonida,
ashen gray. Nest, on the ground usually in grassy
places; it will contain from ten to sixteen white eggs.
The bird is a prolific breeder, and one may often find
a nest with as many as fifteen eggsin it. It is also the
case that the hen bird will successfully raise two large
broods in one season.
The Quail is generally not a migrant; it ranges south
from southern Maine and New Hampshire to the Gulf of
Mexico, and westward to eastern Minnesota, It is nota
characteristic woodland bird, and as a consequence is ill-
fitted for the exposure of our hard northern winters. I
know of no Quail whatever in central New Hampshire,
save the few which have been brought there, and there
is no doubt.but that most of these have perished.
The Quail is by no means the least among the mem-
bers of Nature’s orchestra. As his name implies, his
song simply combines two tones admirably represented
by the syllables, Bob... white! But one must whistle
them, or do the difficult trick of whistling and saying
the words simultaneously. Nor is this all, the word
Bob should be rendered staccato—it must fairly bounce
like a ball, so short must it be, and the white should bea
long slurred tone extending all the way from Bob to the
end of white, a range of at least five or six tones. To il-
lustrate the song by the aid of the piano one should strike
F (the third one above the middle C) quickly, as though
the ivory were hot, and again the second time, jumping
at once from it to D sharp. This is what a musician
would call an augmented sixth, and that is what may be
considered the nearest approximation to the range of
the Quail’s voice. I sometimes think it is only a plain
sixth (see song No. 2) without the extension (or augmen-
tation) of the D to E flat,* and again at another time Iam
sure I hear a full seventh. One can not lay down a rule
about such a thing as that ; wild music must of necessity
be more or less free from the restrictions of accurate pitch.
Nor does the Quail always whistle F or make a jump as
high as a sixth. Song No. 4 is what the bird gave me
in the middle of May, 1900, in the Arnold Arborétum,
*Properly written, the augmented D is D sharp; but D sharp
and E flat are identical,
4
Bob- white
BOB-WHITE,
near Boston. The key is the same, but the bird began on
E flat, and jumped from F up to B flat. It need nos be
supposed that the Quail confines himself to Bob-white
either, he frequently throws in an extra “bob” (see
song No, 3). Mr. Cheney, in Wood Notes Wild, also
vd...
N41 NG
p> 4 2 (f
L i
a- vo + 2
/ | Bob-wh ite? / Bob- “4 ites
Rk. a ; ar a 4 :
}- DOr a \: 2: Po Gb ye
ee eT i ej, 9 1. FF gk
NF | al a + 7}
— . 2
a ey «3 : N24 i
= 4
lV we { U
J Bob! Bob-whlite! (7 Bob-white
._*_% | t
2 z $
: PAs) a ae a = rr .
ae er eR LA BR = iA
: 4
records a similar song. There was a children’s May-
song, popular, I remember, in the public schools of New
York years ago, at the time George F. Bristow was
principal instructor of music, which began with Bob-
white’s call, in a sixth.
>
ile he
al .
— » T i —
2 cAI Rea
_ How rare the Quail is along the northern border of its
range, not only my own but Mr. Cheney’s testimony
¥)
FAMILY Tetraonida,
will prove, for he says: ‘‘ Familiar as I have been with
almost all parts of Vermont for more than thirty years,
I have seen only one Quail in the State, and he was evi-
dently a ‘ tramp.’”
Mr. Ned Dearborn writes in his Birds of Durham,
N. H.: ‘* While the Quail is a permanent resident, its
numbers vary greatly from year to year. In the fall of
1897 they were plentiful, not less than fifty living within
a radius of two miles of the college. Comparatively
few were shot, yet in the spring they were nearly all
gone, and for the next two years they were scarce. In
1900 they were fully as abundant as in 1897.” He also
writes in his Birds of Belknap Co., N. H., that Tilton is
‘¢ about the northern limit of the Quail’s range.”
The habits of the birds are, to say the least, peculiar.
Descend suddenly upon a mother with her chicks and
she immediately goes crazy, leaves her offspring (which
at once scatters for cover), and proceeds to flop along the
ground as though injured, all the while uttering alarm-
notes and frightened chirps! But this is done mostly
for effect; if it distracts the mind of the intruder, so
much the better chance for escape ; and truth to tell, in
less than three seconds there is not a trace of mother or
chicks in the neighborhood. In case a covey of mature
birds are scattered, for quite a while afterward one
may hear them calling themselves together again by
peculiarly expressive minor notes singularly like those of
young chickens. They usually roost on some little hillock
in pasture or field, in a closely huddled group, tails in
and heads out; in this position, so admirably adapted
for defence, a charge by the enemy is often repulsed
with success and brought to utter confusion. The sud-
den whirr and flap of a lot of wings is no ordinary thing
to face ; it would unnerve even the crafty fox, and one
may easily imagine him creeping unguardedly upon what
—to quote Mr, Chapman’s excellent description—will
shortly prove to be ‘‘a living bomb whose explosion is
scarcely less startling than that of dynamite.”
a
PARTRIDGE,
Partridge There is no doubt about it at all, here
aoe Grouse i; the kettledrum of Nature’s orchestra !
cidihellecs The talented performer can not be ex-
L. 16.00 inches celled in his wonderful accelerando even
All the year by the expert who manages the ‘“‘ kettles”
in Theodore Thomas’s Orchestra. The ‘‘drum” of
the Partridge is a most mysterious practice of this fa-
vorite game bird. Nearly all of us have seen the
Partridge, many of us have heard the drumming, but
who — to quote William Hamilton Gibson — ‘“‘who,
will show us the drum?” In appearance the bird re-
sembles his smaller relative Bob-white. The prevailing
colors are red-brown variegated by marks and spots of
sepia, black, ochre-buff, and dull white ; the broad tail
is margined by white, and this is limited by a broad band
of black or blackish sepia ; sides of the neck marked with
glossy black or sepia-black feathers ; the breast indefi.
nitely but the sides rather definitely barred. The female
is similarly but not so strongly marked. The nest is on
the ground usually beneath a tree or among brush; it
ma contain from eight to twelve eggs, rarely more, of
a buffish tint. The range of the bird is from Virginia
and along the mountains to Georgia, and northward to
Canada. It is usually very plentiful in Campton, N. H.,
except after a rainy season. Its diet is comprehensive,
including innumerable seeds, berries of all kinds, ap.
ples, haw apples, buds of many kinds, leaves of clover,
sorrel, crowfoot, and dandelion, and insects such as
locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and beetles.
There has been no end of theorizing by eminent natu-
ralists and others interested, regarding the way the Par-
tridge drums his drum. But I think all opinion may be
set aside in the face of the fact that the sound is pro-
duced by the concussion of air caused by the rapid
movement of the wings; the latter apparently strike
the breast ; in reality they do not, for close observation
shows that the wings are brought considerably forward
while the body of the bird is stretched to a position as
nearly perpendicular as possible.* One good view of a
* Not always though, for my own observations are not altogether
unlike those of others, who state that he does not stand upright !
7
FAMILY Tetraonide.
bird drumming ought to be a sufficient demonstration of
the fact that the air has everything to do with the case
and the body of the bird little or nothing atall. It isthe
air that booms under the rapid lashing of the wings,
just as it is the air which sings in a baritone voice
through the primaries of the Nighthawk’s wings as he
drops like a shot through the sky.
The tone of the Partridge’s kettledrum may be safely
recorded at A flat as well as at A, or at B flat where
Mr. Cheney places it. It is rather difficult to locate the
The authors two records. _ SP Cheneys record.
tt: 1 —— —t
| CA \ i bh it
{ 5 U i v i
trans travn
tone with exactness, as it lacks life and character, but it
may be distinctly heard at a distance of a quarter of a
mile or more. The first tones are staccato, and widely
separated, but the last are run together in a rapid roll,
thus : ;
Accel. et cres. J presto. dim,
| ee ee en ee
«\:
O44
a Se ae *
Boon boom boom boom boo boo bur-r-rrr-rrre rrr rd
Upon seeing the bird go through this remarkable per-
formance one is struck with amazement, for at the end
he subsides into utter quiescence instead of flying all to
pieces! Why the stump or the rock on which he is perched
is not at once covered with every feather from his body
it is difficult to understand. But no, he still holds to-
gether, and probably if one waits a few more minutes he
will be at it again. Watch him closely, and presently
the head begins to bob up exactly like that of a rooster
before he begins to crow,.now the wings are spread and
jerk back and forward with a hollow thud at each
movement, and the next moment the whole bird is a
blurr of feathers and the air is filled with a rushing
whirr which is swiftly graduated to a finish as the body
of the creature becomes distinct and quiet once more,
8
PARTRIDGE.
Then it is, as Mr. Cheney says, ‘‘ he drops into the for-
lornest of attitudes, looking as if he would never move
again.”
In winter the Partridge finds an abundance of food
in the northern woods. Partridge berries, wintergreen
(Gaultheria procumbens), tree buds, and a host of things
~ common in the winter woods make up his diversified
menu, so he does not starve. Nor does he freeze to
death in the coldest weather, for he burrows under the
snowdrift and finds in its shelter a comfortable bedroom
in which to spend the night secure from the prowling
fox. His feet also are amply protected from the frost
by a thick growth of stout bristles arranged along the
toes ; these bristles, like snowshoes, serve to bear him up
in walking over the snow. The growth begins in Octo-
ber, but by the first of April it has entirely vanished.
The Partridge acts very much like the Quail when he
is flushed: suddenly there is a buzz and a whirr almost
at one’s feet and a frightened bird rises with violent
haste, uttering hysterical notes of alarm, and flies off
horizontally into the depths of the forest, leaving the
intruder with nerves so badly shaken that his aim is
spoiled and his gun useless. I quite unexpectedly
came upon a hen bird with her chicks one summer's
day, and the commotion that ensued was out of all
proportion with the occasion ; there was a tremendous
rumpus among the dried leaves as the little chicks scat-
tered, and the distracted mother promptly lost her wits
in the endeavor to leave the spot in several directions
at once. There were whistles, and chirps, and clucks
pitched in a high key at all points of the compass, then
I added a few plaintive chirps of my own as an experi-
ment; back came the mother in reckless panic, with
every individual feather on end, and to my amazement
flew at my legs in a maddened fury! I had quite a
lively time for a few seconds, and then, when her pur-
pose of checking me was‘accomplished, she flew abruptly
away, probably saying to herself—for she still vocifer-
ated loudly—‘‘ Thank goodness! I made that old goose
concentrate his attention on me, and the children are
safe!”
9
FAMILY Bubonide.
ORDER RAPTORES, PREYING BIRDS,
Family Bubonide. OWLS.
This family includes a great number of species about
twenty of which inhabit North America. Of these the
Great Horned Owl, the Barred Owl, and the Screech
Owl furnish the most representative differences of type,
if not of voice. The syllables of the Barred Owl, ac-
cording to Mr. Chapman (and my own observations have
led to a similar-conclusion), are, whoo-whoo-whoo, who-
hoo, to-whoo-ah. The difference between this hoot and
that of the Great Horned Owl, whose record follows, is
apparent at a glance, but there is also a rising inflection
to the voice of the Barred Owl, which is a better point
of discrimination. Farther than this, from a musical
standpoint, it seems unnecessary to go, as Owls can
scarcely be classed among the song-birds. They are rap-
torial, and their voices convey to the ear a very tolerable
idea of their character.
The Owl’s eye is fixed in its socket ; as a consequence
the head turns around as though it were fixed upon a
pivot. I imagine the Owl is therefore a perfect example
of what, according to current slang, is termed the rubber
neck !
Screech Owl It is an open question how many birds
Megascops asio one is justified in including among the so-
eg ae called singers. Certainly the Screech Owl
is not on the ‘‘ prohibitive” list of song-
birds issued under the laws of the State. But to one
who studies bird-music there can be little doubt about
the Screech Owl; he deserves an important position
among the soloists, the quivering tremolo of his remark-
able voice has in it the very essence of music, the ex-
pression of ‘‘ thoughts too deep for words” embodied in
tones of deepest mystery, for whether these tones are
properly described as dulcet or blood-curdling is alto-
gether a matter of opinion dependent upon the listener’s
state of mind.
The colors of the Screech Owl are a mixture of mottled
brown, chestnut, ash-gray, black and ochre, on a gray-
Io
Screech Owl
ad
. |
SCREECH OWL.
white ground. There are two color-phases of the bird,
one is warm and ruddy-toned, and the other is cold and
gray-brown-toned> The beautiful eyes are a topaz yel-
low. The nest is generally in the hollow of an apple-
tree, or some other tree not far from a dwelling. The
eggs are pure white.
When one considers the character of this Owl’s song
in connection with his bill of fare, it is not surprising
that the former is somewhat indicative of the nature of
the latter. What with mice, small birds, snakes, and
frogs as a standard diet, why should not one’s song
savor of the terrible, and cause the listener’s blood to run
cold! To be sure that breathless falling of the voice
seems to denote exhaustion, and the quavering tones ab-
ject terror, but after all this is pure imagination, for the
next moment the voice suggests that of an operatic
singer practising the descending chromatic scale ! What-
ever the eerie cry seems like, whether the screech of the
pioneer’s wife as she is scalped by a red-handed Indian
under the cold rays of an indifferent moon, or the tech-
nical practice of the ‘‘ prima donna,” one thing is cer-
tain, all who have ever heard the strange song agree
that there is something uncanny aboutit! Mr. Chapman
writes : ‘* When night comes one may hear the Screech
Owl's tremulous wailing whistle. It is a weird, melan-
choly call, welcomed only by those who love Nature’s
voice whatever be the medium through which she
speaks.” Mr. Ned Dearborn also writes, ‘‘ The uncanny
cry of a Screech Owl once heard will never be forgotten.”
On one occasion several summers ago, I was hurriedly
invited about sundown by one of the members of the
family, to investigate the nature of a strange voice that
issued from the border of the woods near the cottage.
Although I knew the note of the Screech Owl perfectly
well, this note was less musical and only remotely re-
sembled it by a curious tremolo:
ft Young Owls. 7. a, e
wT
na
rine ee ne] ee ————— |
* Teher.r-whiex! Teher-r-whieu! Tcher-r-whieu!
II
FAMILY Bubonide.
So Iconcluded to put the matter to the test by giving son-
orolisly the full Screech Owl song in a series of quavering
whistles running down the scale. In less than five seconds
there appeared in the dusk of the evening half a dozen
young Screech Owls, who flew about with silent wings,
and at last perched upon the rustic fence, the arbor, and
the old boat which was filled with garden flowers. They
had answered my call promptly, and had come to see
““what wasup!” Their notes were simply weird, a sort
of cross between a sneeze and the wheeze of a pair of
leathern bellows with the wail of a ‘‘ half-frozen puppy ”
(Wilson’s simile) thrown in to make matters more mys-
terious! I shortly came to the conclusion that these
were young birds which had not yet learned to sing
properly, so I gave them a lesson or two, at the same
time profiting by the experience, and getting in a few
lessons for myself. The interview proving satisfactory
or unsatisfactory (I do not know which) the birds flew
fr rrr = raw
} & = bh baat TI
:
(\) i a ' = / s i # Po “7 ;
| rs ¥
ew see ac *
W-w-whieuw-u-u-u-u-u-u-r! Ah-ool
away. But I had got a new idea of variety in Owl
music, and had learned that the following familiar dul-
cet tones were not by any means all of the repertoire of
the Screech Owl.
-,_Tremando.
metedececadeceeeeed ease:
,, = . meet
My annotations have, in most instances, proved very
similar to those of Mr. Cheney whose verbal description
of the song can not be improved upon. He writes: ‘* This
owl ascends the scale generally not more than one or two
degrees” (i, e., one or two tones); ‘* the charm lies in the
manner of his descent sometimes by a third, again by a
fourth, and still again by asixth. I can best describe it
12
Great Horned Owl
. wae
ee
FS Res
7 ity
: ns
t
SCREECH OWL.
\
as a sliding tremolo,—a trickling down, like water over
pebbles : ft
From S.P.Cheney'’s record.
) ae |
J
sine 4 « > = —
Ah.. alg aes = 00, Ah-00, : a <> #
if | al oe
ae a RT i“
i “Sa pes es tT
i.
+ )
WU Mabaah Vhaw
figs
Lae
—+~— “
viv
But another time the bird changed the key and
discarded the minor rendering as follows:
$f
= 7 : y/
The call of the Scarlet Tanager has been adequately
rendered by various authors chip-cherr ; the syllables are
self-explanatory and scarcely need my musical addition:
i
—
! ” Chip-cherr
But this may aid one in remembering the ever-present
overtone in the bird’s voice. Mr. Torrey, in his Birdsin
* Curiously enough this advanced musical effort is set in the keys
of D flat and its relative B flat minor. Quite an accomplished bird,
this!
146
ON a ee
CEDAR WAXWING.
the Bush, says of the call-note: ‘‘ Formerly I gave the
Tanager credit for only:one song,—the one which sug-
gests the Robin laboring under an attack of hoarseness;
_. but I have discovered that he himself regards his chip-
cherr as of equal value.” Possibly there are many who
do not esteem the song of the Tanager very highly. To
tell the truth, the gorgeousness of the little fellow’s cos-
tume eclipses his fame as a musician; but we must travel
far to hear another voice with such a perfectly delicious
reedlike quality, and it would tax the ingenuity of an
accomplished whistler to imitate it with any approach to
a creditable semblance of its singular beauty.
Family Ampelide. WAXWINGS.
This small family includes but one species, the Cedar-
bird, which may be justly called common in the eastern
United States. It is devoid of any musical ability, but is
otherwise very interesting. ?
Cedar Wax- This Cedar Waxwing, or Cedarbird, as
wing he is sometimes called, is most certainly a
Cherrybird ‘ tail de” bird if | f
Ampetis tailor-made ” bir ever there was one
auipairaes which deserved that significant appella-
L.7.15inches tion. His feathers are a close fit, his style
Aprilioth,or refined and irreproachable; his orderly
all the year ~ ES BS ES.
appearance is in sharp contrast with that
characteristically dishevelled morsel of bird-life which
we call the Chickadee, and his dignified carriage is an
unexceptionable model for other members of the feath-
ered tribe. * His colors (and conduct as well) are quiet
almost to the point of being Quakerish; upper parts a
soft tone of light brown graded to gray on wings and
tail; head conspicuously crested; region about the eye
and beneath the bill black; tail tipped with a yellow
band; secondaries, and sometimes tail, in the yellow
part, tipped with scarlet spots resembling red sealing-
wax. Under parts like the back, but paling to a yellow:
* Mr. Ned Dearborn, in his Birds of Durham, calls them “‘ the tip
tops of feathered aristocracy.”
147
FAMILY Sf ae
ish tint lower down. Female sivafigat marked. Nest
built in some tree usually near the house (not infre-
quently a fruit-tree), bulky, and woven with grasses,
bark, twigs, moss, and rootlets, sometimes with a basis
of mud; the lining of similar but finer material. Egg
purplish or bluish gray variously spotted with umber or
black. The breeding season is late—about early July.
The birds range throughout North America, breeding
from Virginia northward, and among the Alleghany
Mountains south to South Carolina; they winter from
the northern United States to northern South America,
They are characteristic wanderers—Mr. Scott calls them
gypsies—who come and go in squads of six or seven, or
more, regardless of migration periods. Their quiet un-
obtrusiveness, their silence, their gentle manners and re-
fined appearance always make them peculiarly attractive
to the bird-lover, in spite of the fact that they have an
unfortunate reputation for being over-fond of cherries.
But I think Mr. F. E. L. Beal has proved that this is an
onus of unjust opinion saddled upon a bird of generally
beneficent habits. He says: ‘‘ much complaint has been
made on account of the fruit eaten. Observation has
shown, however, that the depredations are confined to
trees on which the fruit ripens earliest, while later varie-
ties are comparatively untouched. Thisis probably owing
to the fact that when wild fruits ripen they are preferred
to cherries, and really constitute the bulk of the Cedar-
bird’s diet. In one hundred and fifty-two stomachs ex-
amined, animal matter formed only thirteen and vegetable
eighty-seven per cent., showing that the bird was not
wholly a fruit eater. . . . Of the eighty-seven per
cent. of vegetable food, seventy-four consisted entirely
of wild fruit or seeds, and thirteen of cultivated fruit,
but a large part of the latter was made up of black-
berries and raspberries, and it is very doubtful whether
these represented cultivated varieties. Cherry-stealing
is the chief complaint against this bird, but of the one
hundred and fifty-two stomachs only nine, all taken in
June and July, contained any remains of cultivated
cherries, and these would aggregate but five per cent.
of the year’s food.”
148
RED-EYED VIREO.
The handsome Cedar Waxwing is therefore a bird of
use as well as beauty; but alas for his song! It does not
exist, or if it ever did it is now reduced to the level of
a pianissimo imitation of the whistle belonging to the
Italian’s peanut roaster which sings on the corner of our
city streets. Mr. Torrey writes pleasingly about the al-
most unbroken silence of this bird’s life, and adds: ‘‘ Of
course I refer to the Waxwing whose faint, sibilant
whisper can scarcely be thought to contradict the fore-
going description. By what strange freak he has lapsed
into this ghostly habit, nobody knows. I make no ac-
count of the insinuation that he gave up music because
_ it hindered his success in cherry-stealing. He likes
; cherries it is true, . . . but he would need to work
hard to steal more than does that indefatigable songster,
_ the Robin.”
I have managed, not without some difficulty, to locate
the note of the average Waxwing at E flat, just three
tones beyond the limit of the piano!
Three tones above highest C ppnapy
: Bee
There is also a burred note, which Thoreau calls his
‘*beady note,” included in the above notation. That is
the best and only representation it is possible for me to
give of the voice of this esthetic squeaker.
Family Vireonide. VIREOS.
This group of birds is very nearly related to the War-
blers; but in song and habits the Vireos show traits
which are distinctly their own. There are about fifty
species in America, to which country this family exclu-
sively belongs, but only five species may be considered
common in eastern North America.
Red-eyed The few species of Vireos commonly
haat found in the eastern part of our country
Vireo olivaceus : 4 :
L.6.20inches 2r¢ extremely interesting and useful birds,
May i2th far more musical than the so-called War-
blers to which they are closely related, and certainly
149
FAMILY Vireonide.
more deliberate in character and action, They are, like
the Warblers, great insect destroyers. It is very signi-
ficant in view of the differences between the two classes
of birds that the Vireos almost invariably sing in alle-
gro and the Warblers in presto time, that the voices of
the tiny Warblers are weak, thin, and pitched very high,
and that those of the more robust Vireos are louder and
pitched much lower.
The Red-eyed Vireo is one of the commonest of birds,
and is easily recognized by his intermittent song. He is
in évery orchard, along every highway and byway, and
on the margin of every wooded hill throughout the
country. His crown is dark gray margined by an al-
most black line sharply contrasted with a white one
directly over the eye; the iris is reddish; upper part of
wings (with no wing-bars) light brownish olive; under
parts white or yellower white as the season is advanced.
Female similar in coloring. The nest is pensile and
woven of dried grasses and the shredded stems or
branches of weeds; plant down, bits of paper,* and
birch-bark are also often used in its construction. About
one half of the edge of the nest is attached to some forked
limb anywhere from five to thirty (or rarely more) feet
high. Egg white, sparingly flecked with umber or sepia.
The range of this Vireo is throughout eastern North
America; it winters in Central and South America.
There is no bird song more easily traced to its source
after a little experience with the roadside songsters than
this one. It is not necessary to leave the road to find the
singer, he will surely be directly overhead or on the
other side of the way before one has walked five minutes;
he is omnipresent, persistently loquacious, indefatigable,
and irrepressible! He has something to say at all times
and under all circumstances, and one may absolutely
rely upon his having the /ast word unless the matter is
settled with a gun! Heis a restless fellow and is seldom
in one place for more than a few seconds ata time. All
through the long summer day he sings his rhythmically
* A young lady once showed me a nest belonging to her collection,
in which was weven a bit of newspaper with the print in plain
sight; it read—or part of it did—* front door this side.”
150
”
— sa" ~~. hl .
.
ig
as
=
-RED-EYED VIREO.
broken, interrupted song, and one may always depend
upon this fragmentary character for its unmistakable
identification. The dots show the disconnected charac-
ter of the song perfectly:
we @ ote @ o*e, e re ra a
« n s
The musical notation in general appearance does not look
unlike that of the Robin:
Hilegro agitate, DD Hil twice 8va, GQ
J _/T} _ Fo
mf 3X sempre staccato. 73
—s
2 in
“ Or' the fal lowing:
Allegro agitato. ee se es
_ - Ll . \ Ll
—
Expressivo. ‘
Pat
we A rT
SI i
dididid alata
Li ll Te » Ll
Also, the next transcription, taken from Athanasius
Kircher’s Musurgia Universalis written as early as the
year 1590, still more pointedly shows the extreme melodic
limitation of the Nightingale; the fragment is a justly
representative one.
Now the Hermit Thrush is an altogether different kind
of a singer, as the ensuing notations willshow. He is
brilliant in execution beyond description, as versatile in
melody as a genius, and as pure in his tones as refined
silver. It would be useless to attempt a representation
of the song by a series of dots and dashes; the mechani-
cal rhythm is completely overshadowed by the wonder-
ful way in which the singer delivers his sustained tonic
and then embroiders it with a rapid and brilliant cadenza.
The one prime point which distinguishes the song of this
Thrush from all others, is the long, loud, liquid-clear
tone with which it is begun; here is an illustration:
+1
Ll
y
*Un jeune Fg repre vient de mettre en musique le chant du
Rossignol. Voici paroles de ce petit chef-d’ceuvre:
Tiudu, tidu, tidu, tidu, utio, qutio, qutio, qutio,
Lpé tid zqua ; Zquo, ZQUO, ZqUO, ead”
uorror pipu, Zi, zi. zi, zi, zi, zi, zi
0, tio, tio, tio, tix ; Quorror ‘tia zqua ‘pipiql }
255
HERMIT THRUSH.
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FAMILY Turdide.
This is completely beyond the ability of the Nightingale;
it is a theme worthy of elaboration at the hands of a
master musician; but the Hermit does his own elabora-
ting as my succeeding notations will show.
If there are those who suppose that the Veery is the only
bird which sings late in the evening they are greatly mis-
taken, for here is a set of records taken from two Hermits
which sang at ten minutes of eight on June 29, 1903, ina
pasture directly behind my house in Campton, N. H.
= eed * ia
egro. rer, aim. ~~ ~ - y 2 ai >
| al
. |
:
e bird @varied “this—theme Ev)
Laccords ing to "WP 6. 3 “4 £ >
— : +
o}—5 T |
tao 2 | 4 4 4
“Bil © | SS 8 z
mas FA ‘ cres. f - ‘NS
at ee. a. wh | > aes
we 1
i iil
ss J. Li
474. varia this theme
ae will Be ound inN° 7
i as a
“T Tl 17
; 7 Sk” a a ” |
- . [4 ¥ ’
: = : —
5&6 are beautiful” themes. pe
cres mm. e. mS e
“= Tih * |
Y :
= + a0
tm Cou, .
HERMIT THRUSH.
Some of the themes are in the minor key and some in
the major; some are plaintive, others are joyous, all are
melodious; there is no score of the Nightingale which
can compare with such records as these; notice particu-
larly the fifth one. It must be remembered, however,
that bird songs are most ethereal things, a great deal
like the wonderful tinting and delicate spiral weaving
in Venetian glass; one must see the color or hear
the melody in order to fully appreciate its subtile beauty;
the song is charming because of its spirituality of tone
and its depth of expression; how can the meagre out-
lines of music notation convey such truths! Who can
justly report the Hermit’s song! there is a silvery sus-
tained tone like that of a flute, then a burst of brilliant
scintillating music:
and the song’s complete,
With such a wealth of melody sweet
As never the organ pipe could blow
And never musician think or know!
One of the most fantastic and perhaps extraordinary
themes I ever heard from this Thrush, was obtained late
in July, in the White Mountains:
Jillegro. aN / nf ieeeeare G
q > a
da.
he im, P S grrr
~ va T
a t — sa t
2 bl bs in e
f fe, +
i L Ss)
sii =I
TH T
i, itt
“= a
201
FAMILY Turdide.
In structure it closely resembles that tempestuous and
wild movement that opens the finale of Beethoven's
Moonlight Sonata:
Constructively the Hermits music resembles this; but the bird
. reverses the order of dynamics.
= “ }
ra i i i i ae | i ’
. a a a a a a a.
ci —_ : — a. s — ic . Ss rr a r4
# £ #¢ $= $F Z
But Beethoven emphasizes the tonic at the close of the
run; the Hermit does so in the beginning; both bits of
music progress in presto time, and both rush onward to
a high climax, The Thrush moreover is a transcenden-
talist, he climbs higher than his voice will carry, and
like many another aspiring songster, makes a ludicrous
failure of the highest notes. After one or two bad
breaks, which apparently threaten the woodland sym-
phony with the ignominy of disaster, the Hermit—who
sings the prima donna’s part in the score—seems to say
to himself, after a short pause, ‘‘See here, my fine fel-
low, this will never do, that portamento was out of
place, and the high note sounded like the whetting of a
scythe! Try a lower key and silence that ‘Swainson’
over yonder mouthing his zigzag notes as though he
were trying to make them creep upstairs! Shucks!
Show him how to soar!” And the bird is at it again
entirely oblivious of the fact that he steadily climbs in
keys until he goes to pieces again somewhere around G
sharp, whole octaves higher than the limit of the piano!
Such is the character of the singer and hissong. But
what a consummate tone artist heis! Not content with
a single key, he deliberately chooses several in major and
minor relationship, and elaborates these with perfectly
charming arpeggios and wonderful ventriloquous triads,
executed with all the technical skill of a master singer.
And what a wealth of melody there isin his varied themes!
Note the suggestive motives of the following record ;
=02
HERMIT THRUSH.
Allegro. \ » Faeteti
& ae ge
tito es +t Sf
D >
bbs L roo
a»
Bva--a°-
fe atate
Dos Poe Se at oe
Vi 7 gi 4
ee ,4 j +4
ff \V VY 5 yt = kl
—_i
r
Wagner himself, in the Ring of the Nibelung, has
scarcely given a better song to the bird that addresses
Siegfried, than this which a Hermit Thrush gave me
one afternoon on a ferny hill of Campton.
Pp.
O! wheel-y-will-y-will-y-il.
And how close it is to the last passage here in Wagner's
music, which one will recognize at once as the Tarnhelm
motive. The little bird sang this strain, together with
the Rhine daughter’s motive, to Siegfried,
263
FAMILY Turdidz.
This was. th® Rhine Pte ang
Moderato. stste > tive which the little r SANG.
nT T
m sempre po Hi / Siegfried. doth
t @_» -