FAMILY Fringillide. 
The similarity of this air to that which the White-throat 
sings is at once apparent. Another song with the inter- 
val of a fourth, which a bird gave me in the White 
Mountains, is strongly reminiscent of the Di Provenza 
from Verdi’s Traviata ; this is what the bird sang: 
(The bird SINGS three octaves higher, ending on highest C) 
and these are the first bars of the simple but beautiful 
melody from the opera: 
Certainly the resemblance between the two songs is 
striking. Occasionally White-throat attempts a high 
pitch which he is unable to sustain, and then we hear 
him drop down the scale by easy steps like a musical 
sigh, thus: 
F  Threa times 8va. dim. 
aa ry 7 A 
whittlin’ whittlin’ whittlin? 
All =day long 
The tones of voice here express as much discouragement 
as the words which accompany them imply. Thereisa 
sort of ‘* Heigh ho, fiddle-de-deet®”’ character to the music 
which makes one think the little bird looks upon life and 
its cares asatough problem! Thatis not unlike the pessi- 
mistic sentiments expressed by Carmen when she ap- 
pears in the first act of the Opera and sings that love isa 
wilful wild bird with whom it is dangerous to have any 
98 
