CHAPTER X 



THE MUSIC OF BIRD-SONG 



It is obvious that many birds of limited voice 

 repeat in their cries various intervals of musical 

 pitch. The cuckoo, cock, chiffchaff, and great tit 

 afford familiar examples of this feature, which is 

 traceable in many songs much more extended than 

 those of these birds, namely, in those of the 

 chaffinch, greenfinch, hedge-accentor, willow-warbler, 

 blackbird, blackcap, brown wren, and others. It is 

 easy to record the intervals expressed in limited 

 cries, though, of course, with only approximate 

 accuracy, for the birds have no knowledge of our 

 scale of music. But when birds sing such long 

 phrases as those uttered by the robin, blackbird, 

 and blackcap in June, it is difficult to make one 

 individual record ; and impossible — such is the 

 variety of these songs — to make any true general 

 record, as characteristic of the species ; though this 



