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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



have given of the bird's music was a 

 favorite with him and was freely used, 

 he had several oilier phrases in whicli 

 it did not appear. The following one 

 will be sufficient to indicate the general 

 character of the rest of his music: 





:ff=(t 



11 will be aj)|)arent to any musician, 

 of however huuiblo rauk, tliaf the music 

 here written (and it is an exact tran- 

 scription of the notes sung by tlie l)ird) 

 is ])erfectly comparable to our own 

 music of this twentieth century; and 

 not only in the use of the same scale, 

 l)ut in I'liytluu, melodiousness, and har- 

 monious I)alancing of phrases. Careful 

 examination will disclose several ef- 

 fective touches, such as the use, in one 

 of the combinations given above, of the 

 Etj before the following F's. 



The rock thrush is found in southern 

 Europe, and, if 1 may safely judge 

 from my own experience with this one 

 individual bird and from the rank ac- 

 corded the species by some observers of 

 it in its wild state, I should say that it 

 is of all European birds the most melo- 

 dious — using the term in its proper 

 sense and not in the loose way in which 

 it is generally handled by a careless 

 public. Its chief rival seems to be the 

 European blackbird (Merula merula). 

 Personally I have little knowledge of 

 the singing of the blackbird, although I 

 have noted one or two utterances from 

 some in American zoological collections 

 that indicated the high musical char- 

 acter of the bird in its native wilds. I 

 am able, however, to reproduce three 

 blackbird songs of a very choice quality 

 musically, which were recorded at 

 Sevres, France, a few years ago by an 

 accomplished musician and lecturer on 

 music, Mrs. Amelia von Ende : 



These three songs disclose a strong 

 feeling for harmony as well as for 

 melody. The alternation of tonic and 

 dominant harmony in the first is very 

 effective, while the pleasant modulation 

 to E minor in the second is quite satis- 

 fying. Particular praise must, how- 

 ever, be accorded to the third song, 

 which presents an attractive, sprightly, 

 and well-developed theme. 



]^ul it is not necessary to cross the 

 ocean to obtain examples of good music 

 from birds ; our own land is the home 

 of some of the best of avian musicians. 

 I have secured several four-phrase 

 songs from our own thrushes which in 

 beauty of melody and arrangement of 

 themes surpass all other avian music 

 that has come to my attention, and we 

 have other species that take high musi- 

 cal rank. The song sparrows furnish 

 melodies enough to equip nearly every 

 member of the woodland chorus with 

 a different song for each. Some of 

 these song-sparrow themes are very 

 satisfying. Here is one I heard in 

 northern Ohio last spring: 



This, although simple, is a very pleas- 

 ing and melodious phrase, one that no 

 human musician need be ashamed to 

 borrow for incorporation into some 



