VESPER SPARROW. 
The bird’s rendering appears as follows: 
J =120 ee ene 2) 44) 
Moderato. 
Cres dim, 
Lord, Lord Bateman W<a-s a n-o-b-l-e Lord,Lord,Lord! 
I consider this one of the best and most characteristic 
productions of the Vesper, though his confréres in other 
parts of the country by no means cling close to its melo- 
dic form. Naturally the birds of every locality develop 
certain provincialisms in song, and the Vesper is no ex- 
ception to that rule. But he certainly does not attempt 
to depart from the rhythm which characterizes the song 
of his species. For example, the above record came 
from a bird more than a hundred miles away from an- 
other in Vermont which sang the following: 
Moderato, s 
This record shows that the ascending and descending 
divisions (or halves) remain in the same relative position, 
although they are in a measure doubled, while the sus- 
tained tones begin and the chirped or trilled tones end 
the song precisely as they do in the first record. It is 
not always the case that the opening tones progress up- 
ward with exact uniformity; the next record shows a 
drop to a lower tone before the trills begin: 
87 
