234 



"■' tliat iiiiist be upon the musical staff, .... Syllables are very 

 *• useful in expressing time or rhythm." 



Mr. Mathews might have said that the song nitist 

 be recorded b}' some notation, but probabl}^ he does 

 not read music by the Tonic Sol-fa notation, and has 

 no knowledge of the extent of the method introduced 

 by Miss Glover and Mr. Curwen, now so extensively 

 taught in our schools and colleges. 



How much better than words is a notation ! 

 Some writers on aviculture are prone to try to imitate 

 a bird -song by writing a succession of syllables: 

 tweet, tweet-tweet tivee ; jug-jug; and so on, as if a 

 mere suggestion of vowel - sounds and rhythmical 

 utterance could convey to the musical mind the 

 compass and melody of song! 



The Author is as careful in his description of the 

 birds' plumage as he is of the song, and many of us 

 will agree with him when he pleads that we shall call 

 a spade a spade : 



" I do not use such color - terms as rufous, viuaceous, 

 " fuscous, and the like, when describing a 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 your dress-maker to line your garment viuaceous ! 

 " Presumably the ornithologist 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 suggest that he was very unscientific outside his 

 " profession— 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 not call him purple, but crimson, and when he sings 

 *' G sharp we will not hunt around for a syllable to represent 

 •' it, but put it on the musical staff where it belongs ! " 



We want a musical avicnlturist — a man with a 

 inessa^e, even as Dr. Creswell is a man with a mission 

 in the branch of hygiene. 



The gift of song in birds is sadly neglected. 

 We hear so much of the feeding, the cages, the 



