THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE THRUSHES. 
Our Hermit has not progressed beyond that quaint, 
primitive scale; just there he has reached his own limita- 
tion, why should we expect more? Indeed we may well 
marvel at the skillful use of so expressive a scale by so tiny 
a brain. The Thrush is a pygmy beside which the Scotch 
piper is an immense giant; comparisons of their music are 
out of place here, but it is sufficient to say the American bird 
has outwhistled the piper with his own Scotch pentatones. 
For some years I had wondered why the song of the Her- 
mit was—at least to my ears—reminiscent of Scottish 
melody; finally a close scrutiny of my innumerable nota- 
tions taken afield revealed the nature of the limited scale; 
here is its transcription: please notice that the five keys 
Hermit Thrush. Various keys & the Pentatonie scale. 
nC 1 Aminor 2 F 3 i 
require but one signature, and also, that the following five 
songs confined to the scales and the keys as above distinctly 
suggest the character of Scottish melody: 
Q 
A 
Q 
1 2 
Various themes on the scale and keys preceding. 
This scale is by no means a peculiar possession of the 
Scotch; Dvorak used it in the Largo movement of his New 
World Symphony, and in his popular Humoresque, Op. 
101, No. 7. The scale is also characteristic of our southern 
Negro melody, and of Stephen Foster’s beautiful and 
pathetic songs. A quaint old melody entitled a Northern 
Refrain* by Charles E. Horn of New York, 1838, contains 
* New York so late as the year 1864 was famous for its negro 
shimney-sweeps. The title of this songis: ‘‘A Northern Refrain, 
suggested from a well-known New York Carol, sung with enthusiastic 
XXX1X 
