152 



WOOD NOTES WILD. 



White-throated Sparrow. — Contin. 



report that the birds sing out of tune : " The B in the last 

 form was often sung most outrageously flat." — Goodwin, 



W. L. : Music in Nature. (Nature, vol. xxxvii., 1887-88, pp. 151-152.) 



A. G. Wilkinson heard what he took for the white- 

 throat's singing on the Dartmouth Eiver. " Between each 

 double bar is a single song. Numbers 1 and 2 are 

 different songs of one bird, and Numbers 3 and 4 are songs 

 of another bird": — 



2J- 



^^^ r iJ!En]r'-r r r i r- ii 



i 



J|5^ 



4. r 



^^^ 



r r ^ 



^ 



^ 



{In Mayer, A. M., ed.: Sport with Gun and Rod, p. 436.) 



" There is one other bird worthy of distinction from a similar quality of 

 music. I refer to the white-throated sparrow. I give their song, like 

 the thrush's, a simple melody, and yet, like the thrush's, true to the 

 human scale, and of course true to the law of harmony. I awoke, one 

 morning, five thousand feet above tide-water, to a concert of these birds, 

 such as no man ever heard at a lower elevation, and such as I never ex- 

 pect to hear repeated. There seemed to be half a dozen within a stone's 

 throw, and aU pouring out their welcome to the new day. But mind you 

 this fact, it was a solo concert ; as each in turn uttered its simple melody, 

 not one infringed on the time of another or gave a note except in regular 

 succession. I marked four distinct variations in their song, which I give, 

 and which you will see are all common chords of the human scale : " — 





(Horsford, B., in a letter to the Editor, dated October, 1890. ) 



See Burroughs, J. : Wake-robin, p. 87. 



