FAMILY Tyrannide. 
pe sustained for at least asecond. Then, for the better 
part of the bird’s song, his pee-a-wee, all that is required 
is to whistle in a very slow, dragging fashion, first a 
clear high note, then one exactly a fourth below that, 
and finally one a minor third above the one last men- 
tioned. That is literally all there is to the song; the 
variations are too unimportant to mention. Dots and 
dashes will fairly represent the idea, 
@ td e 
e y e © 
e e 
e 
Pee-a-wee. Peer? Pee-a-wee, Peer!  Pee.a-wee 
but it seems as though the very plain position of the 
notes on the musical staff ought to be intelligible to all 
persons whether music readers or not. 
p) 
Tice 8v2  .... --ete — sempre legato 
: : om 
The grace note attached to the note representing the first 
syllable is an extremely important one; a sharp ear will 
readily detect an ascending tone to pee, and in some 
cases it will be discovered that the little introductory 
tone is almost independent of the next one and justly 
deserves to be counted the first of four tones in the 
song.* It is impossible, also, for me to put too much 
stress on what a musician would call its legato char- 
acter; there is no bird which compares with the Wood 
Pewee in sheer laziness of style ; he does not attempt to 
“hit” a note squarely, he reaches for it with all the 
sentimentality (but none of the vulgarity) of the inex- 
perienced and uncultivated singer, capturing us in spite 
of his error by the perfect sweetness of his voice. How 
inimitably dignified and graceful is his rendering of that 
familiar but rather flippant aria in Auber’s Fra Diavolo: 
*This more complete form of the Pewee’s song belongs to the 
nuptial season. 
40 
