BIRD-SONGS. 41 



ing to, common though it is, and may easily 

 suggest a number of questions about the origin 

 and meaning of bird music. 



The white-eyed vireo is a singer of astonish- 

 ing spirit, and his sudden changes from one 

 theme to another are sometimes almost start- 

 ling. He is a skillful ventriloquist, also, and I 

 remember one in particular who outwitted me 

 completely. He was rehearsing a well-known 

 strain, but at the end there came up from the 

 bushes underneath a querulous call. At first I 

 took it for granted that some other bird was in 

 the underbrush ; but the note was repeated too 

 many times, and came in too exactly on the beat. 



I have no personal acquaintance with the 

 Western meadow-lark, but no less than twenty- 

 six of his songs have been printed in musical 

 notation, and these are said to be by no means 

 all.i 



Others of our birds have similar gifts, though 

 no others, so far as I know, are quite so versa- 

 tile as these three. Several of the warblers, 

 for example, have attained to more than one 

 set song, notwithstanding the deservedly small 

 reputation of this misnamed family. I have 

 myself heard the golden-crowned thrush, the 

 black-throated green warbler, the black-throated 



1 Mr. C. N. Allen, in Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological 

 Club, July, 1881. 



