FAMILY Troglodytidz. 
I have found most writers express the song by a series of 
simple syllables which properly carry the idea of mon- 
otony withthem. Mr. Chapman writes it ‘‘ Ching, ching, 
chee,” and Mr. Jones, ‘‘ Che, che, che, che, pa.” Evi- 
dently both are shorter forms of the song as I have 
recorded it above. 
It is a comparatively simple matter to record any 
or all of the Warblers’ songs on the musical staff pro- 
vided one can obtain them; but it is an extremely diffi- 
cult task to supply one’s self with the immense equipment 
necessary to perform such work completely. It is an ut- 
terly discouraging thing for one who wishes to learn the 
songs, to have nothing but meaningless syllables to de- 
pend upon, and it is quite as discouraging to the one who 
desires to collect the music and incorporate it in its 
proper form on the musical staff, to find that he must 
travel from Dan to Beersheba and hear thousands of 
Warblers before he can be sure of his song types, and 
write authoritatively about the small matter of a score of 
species! So far, that has never been done, but no doubt 
it will be done—in time. If, therefore, some of my no- 
tations belonging to certain Warblers are meagre and 
unsatisfactory, the reason is obvious; after years of 
watching and waiting I obtained but little. But I am 
convinced that this little in true musical form is worth 
all the silly syllables that ever were invented by impress- 
ing our sensible English language for a service which it 
was certainly never intended to perform. 
Family Troglodytide. 
MOCKINGBIRDS, THRASHERS, WRENS, ETC. 
In this family are the Mockingbird, Catbird, and 
Brown Thrasher, all distinctively American birds, and the - 
Wren. Itis a significant fact that their music is very 
similar, although the songs of the Wrens are decidedly 
fluent, and in this respect different from the hesitating, 
halting character of those of the other three birds. 
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