232 



one side of the paper only, tlins obviating the un- 

 sightly type impression and " set-off" so objectionable 

 to a careful printer. 



The Reviewer in November Bird Notes frankly 

 confesses that he is " hopelessly unmusical," so we 

 cannot wonder at the scant praise accorded. It is 

 evident that he is unmusical when he declares that, 

 until he saw the book, he understood it was impossible 

 to express the song of birds in musical notation — it 

 was done long ago. 



Mr. Robert Ball relates that Father Kircher 

 ** arranged the songs of the cuckoo, the quail, the 

 " cock, and of the hen when she is about to lay and 

 *' and when she calls her little ones." And he 

 " reproduced curious plates where he gives the result 

 " of these observations." -•' 



Barrington, also, tried to note the song of the 

 Nightingale, but confessed he was not successful, 

 owing to the difficulty of estimating the exact value 

 of each note. 



Helmholtz, long before, did the same thing, and 

 it is recorded in almost every reliable work on 

 musical notation. 



But until we saw Mr. Mathews' admirable work 

 we never met with so exact a nielliod of noting bird 

 songs. He has so arranged the time signs (always a 

 great difficulty in writing a rapid succession of notes) 

 and the octave marks that anyone can read the songs 

 of the different birds that he has put on paper ; and it 

 is quite possible for a skilful performer to reproduce 

 these sounds on any instrument capable of reaching 

 the required pitch ; a piccolo, an oboe, or a violin — 

 the latter for preference. 



As the Author only gives us American bird-songs 

 the present writer cannot presume to judge of their 



* Robert Ball, of Dublin i/iiiTrrsily, '• Acoustics : or the Phenomena 

 of Sound." 



