CHICKADEE. 
or the rhythm of verse that a person would naturally 
pronounce the syllables ‘‘ chick-a” exactly twice as fast 
as the ‘‘dees.” In illustration of this, tap on these dots 
witha pencil.. . . . . and you will get the true 
relative value of the syllables ‘‘ chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee.” 
‘* Lisp” the first two notes between the teeth and com- 
bine a hum with a lisp for the other four, and you have 
the Chickadee’s call. The song of the bird is entirely 
different, 
piCetaia Gh mere key MOS clei eet le be 
Phee- be. os ib Come to me 
and is often mistakenly attributed to the Phoebe; but 
poor tuneless Phoebe is intellectually incapable of sucha 
perfectly musical bit as this. Mr. Cheney says of these 
two notes, ‘‘never were purer tones heard on earth.” 
Indeed, few small birds whistle their songs as clearly, 
and separate the tones by such lucid intervals. The 
charm too of the Chickadee’s singing lies in the fact that 
he knows the value of a well-sustained half-note, another 
point which should be scored in the little musician’s favor; 
and truly, in this regard he is far ahead of the Canary, 
for the latter wastes his energy splitting into hemi-demi- 
semi-quavers every tone within the compass of an 
octave. 
I may be overestimating the value of a melody so 
meagre as that of the Chickadee, but if so it becomes 
difficult to account for the charm that underlies the 
music of all great composers, for constructively consid- 
ered their melodies are mere elaborations of absolutely 
simple themes. No better illustrations of this fact can 
be produced than those I have introduced among the 
pages in this book devoted to the Song Sparrow. The 
best way to prove the musical value of the Chickadee’s 
two or three pure tones, is to connect together a few 
such as one may easily obtain from three or four birds 
which are singing together in their customary, delight- 
ful, antiphonal way. This is what I make of the 
fusion: 
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