^otes from JptelU anti ^tutij» 



The Poetic Melancholy of the Birds 



I should like to express, through the 

 pages of Bird-Lore, my gratitude and 

 appreciation of the unexpectedly warm 

 and kind response so many have made to 

 my query concerning the whisper-songs 

 of i)irds. Besides the word of the editor 

 and tlie nine letters given in March- 

 April Bird-Lore, several letters have 

 come to me personally. 



My first letter was from Mrs. Jessie 

 Braman Daggett, a bird-impersonator of 

 La Grange, 111., who most eloquently 

 confirmed my observations as matched 

 by her own, and added that she had 

 autumn records of the whisper-songs of 

 the following birds: White-throated and 

 White-crowned Sparrows, Towhee, Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak, Blue Jay, and 

 Cardinal. 



Mrs. May S. Banner, of Canton, Ohio, 

 had heard, in the latter part of September, 

 1913, a Catbird sing in a bush near her, 

 in her city yard, a song that seemed the 

 counterpart of the one I described, except 

 no mews, sung, she writes, with "partly 

 closed bill." 



On September 11, 1914, Mrs. W. H. 

 Peek, of Kalamazoo, Mich., while stand- 

 ing waiting outside of her automobile, 

 in a gentle rain, near a roadside thicket, 

 heard a Catbird's song, "very sweet and 

 subdued," within the thicket. The bird 

 came out to the edge to investigate, but 

 made no protest, did not sing there, but 

 went back out of sight and softly sang 

 over all his notes. She also reports hav- 

 ing heard Catbirds sing in much the same 

 tone and manner their whole repertoire 

 on moonlight nights in town, at midnight, 

 or sometimes all night, during the nest- 

 ing-season. 



Paul Dean, of Clarkesville, Texas, 

 while driving his cows to pasture one 

 morning in September, 1913, heard the 

 'wee song' of a Mockingbird, in a nearby 

 haw bush, "where he was huddled up 



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like he was cold. There was a slight 

 quivering in his throat, otherwise there 

 was no visible movement. . . . The 

 song resembled that usually sung by the 

 Mockingbird, differing only in volume, 

 which made it all the sweeter." 



Rufus Stanley, director of the Omega 

 Boys Club, of Elmira, N. Y., has heard 

 the Catbird's 'ghost song' several times 

 ill the spring, the first time in 1900. Being 

 a little doubtful about this, I wrote to 

 Mr. Stanley and received the following 

 reply: "The song I heard in the spring 

 was audible only about five or six feet, 

 and seemed the same as one I heard last 

 summer from about the same distance. 

 Both of them, and others that I have 

 heard, were like the 'whispered reverie' 

 3'ou mention." 



It appears, in summing up this inter- 

 esting evidence, that almost any bird may 

 indulge in a whisper-song, but that Cat- 

 birds, Thrashers and Mockers, are the 

 most prone to the habit, the Catbird in 

 the lead; and that September is the month 

 of most probable occurrence, though whis- 

 per-songs may be heard in summer, spring, 

 or winter. 



Mr. Chapman's explanation of the 

 effect of low temperature in checking 

 song-expression throws a flood of light on 

 the matter; yet I think those who feel 

 that sorrow may be a psychological cause 

 can say much for their theory also. 



September is not a very cold month 

 anywhere, and here, in New Jersey, is 

 often quite hot in daytimes. In the 

 typical cases I cited, I am certain the 

 birds were not cold. The time was early 

 afternoon and the days warm. Besides, 

 it is very significant to me that the birds 

 usually hide away to sing their whisper- 

 songs in deep and shaded thickets. They 

 would not do this if they were cold. Those 

 who have witnessed the whisper-song of 

 autumn will, I am sure, agree that the 

 expression of the bird is not that of chill, 

 but of reverie or tender melancholy, as 



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