THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE THRUSHES 
It may seem rather extravagant praise to sum up the 
song of the Hermit Thrush in the unqualified terms I have: 
used on pages 256-57, but I am confident that a close stu- 
dent of his music must surely arrive at the conclusion that: 
it possesses a subtle charm which rarely if ever distin- 
guishes the songs of other birds. Theodore Roosevelt has: 
expressed himself most emphatically on that point, he 
writes: ‘‘In melody, and above all in that finer, higher 
melody where the chords vibrate with the touch of eternal 
sorrow, it (the Nightingale) cannot rank with such singers 
as the Wood Thrush and Hermit Thrush. The serene, 
ethereal beauty of the Hermit’s song, rising and falling 
through the still evening under the archways of hoary 
mountain forests that have endured from time everlasting; 
the golden leisurely chiming of the Wood Thrush sounding 
on a June afternoon, stanza by stanza, through sun-flecked 
groves of tall hickories, oaks, and chestnuts—with these 
there is nothing in the Nightingale’s song to compare.” 
I wrote here, years ago, in similar vein: ‘The passionate 
and plaintive notes of the Nightingale apparently have no 
place in the Hermit’s song; our gifted Thrush sings more of 
the glory of life and less of its tragedy, more of the joy of 
heaven and less of the passion of earth. That is a purely 
human point of view all the more significant because one 
bird sings to the European, and the other to the American 
ear.”’ (See page 257.) 
To sum it up in a few words, no other bird has developed 
what is plainly an intelligent use of a musical scale aptly 
fitted for expressive song—the so-called Pentatonic Scale. 
We have become so familiar with the two comprehensive, 
modern scales, the Chromatic which includes all the tones 
within the octave, and the Diatonic which, in the key of 
C, is represented by the seven ivories of the piano keyboard. 
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