FAMILY Fringillidz. 
The character of the trills, or chirps, too, needs some 
explanation. In the first place, such notes can not be 
properly called trills. I only employ that term in the 
popular sense of its meaning rapidly repeated notes. 
They are slurred tones covering intervals of indetermin- 
ate length rendered in a shrill register beyond the limit 
of the piano keyboard, and, so far as the ear is able to 
detect, a whole octave higher than the sustained tones 
which form the first half of the song. On my diagram 
of bird songs (in the key), it will be seen that this Vesper 
Sparrow has a break in his voice equal to something like 
a full octave. It is no wonder, therefore, that ornithol- 
ogists experience great difficulty in an attempt to de- 
scribe such a song as that. But it isfar from unusual 
among the Finch Family. I call to mind a Canary, a 
splendidly trained singer, who could render an operatic 
melody in clear whistled tones, moderately high, and at 
its finish strike at once into his natural wild song, which 
must have been considerably over an octave higher. 
That bird was owned by a barber whose shop was near 
Union Square, New York, and its value was some fabu- 
lously high figure which I do not remember. 
The Vesper Sparrow sings with both style and feeling, 
notwithstanding the defect in his vocal register. He 
always begins pianissimo, swells in a fine crescendo and 
diminishes as he descends to a tone very near the tonic: 
9 Moderato. This motive ts tdentical 
with that 9, 
Chopin's 3rd. 
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