THE MEANING OF BIRD MUSIC 



125 



Even the common l)arnyard cock will 

 occasionally express his exuberant feel- 

 ings in true melody, as in this paean 

 with which I heard a Maryland cock 

 oreet the dawn on a N"ovember morn- 

 ing: 



and in which the final descent of the 

 gamut was accomplished by distinct 

 steps, unblurred by any portamento, or 

 slur, and in good strict time. Many of 

 the Oscines that may properly be 

 classed as melodists hold their title by 

 a very slight grip. The lisping or 

 buzzing songs of most species of war- 

 blers, the incoherent utterances of 

 purple finch, goldfinch, warbling vireo, 

 junco, and like singers, the twittering 

 chirpings of swallows, the monotones 

 of nuthatch and chipping sparrow, and 

 the indeterminate notes of house wren, 

 indigo bird, and English sparrow (in his 

 rare musical moods) — these perform- 

 ances, although often pleasing to the 

 ear, are almost entirely lacking in mel- 

 ody, as known and enjoyed by man; 

 while the dickcissel expresses his emo- 

 tions in articulations that seem to be- 

 long to speech, rather than song. 



On the other hand, some of the avian 

 melodists are entitled to high rank as 

 musicians, even when judged by human 

 musical standards. Many of their pro- 

 ductions, although brief, excel in me- 

 lodious beauty the best efforts of some 

 primitive human races, and a few arc 

 worthy of a place beside the melodies of 

 the civilized world. Here is an attrac- 

 tive passage^ in which a theme in a 

 minor key is followed l^y the same 

 theme in the relative major key, with a 



1 Although the fact is unimportant, it may be 

 stated that all the bird fongs given in this article 

 ■were sung an octave higher than they are here 

 written. 



change from piano to forte that gives a 

 distinct touch of brilliancy : 



This is not, as might be thought, an 

 extract from the note book of Mozart, 

 Bach, or Mendelssohn, but an excerpt 

 from the song of a rock thrush (Mon- 

 ticoki saxicola) I heard in the Worth- 

 ington Aviary at Shawnee-on-Delaware, 

 Pennsylvania, four or five years ago. 

 The notes were perfectly true to pitch 

 and were given in a quality of tone 

 that was exactly that of the human 

 whistle. The attendants at the aviary 

 had picked up the bird's phrases, and 

 during my three days there I could 

 never tell without inquiry whether the 

 bird or an attendant was responsible 

 for any particular rendering of them I 

 happened to hear. 



Ijike the true little musician that he 

 was, the thrush avoided monotony by 

 varying his utterances, sometimes with 

 different themes, sometimes with dif- 

 ferent combinations of themes. His 

 ingenious use of the second theme of 

 the song quoted above appears in the 

 following notations of some of the com- 

 binations: 



^SES 



^gg?^^ feg^£^_-:±^^^ 8 



But while the theme that plays so 

 prominent a part in the examples I 



