LYRISTS OF A SUBURB. 85 



been awakened and whose eye has become alert 

 after a first meeting with a feathered friend. Bat 

 this is a digression ; I have merely interlarded 

 these remarks for the encouragement of the tyro, 

 and must now return to my subject, the white- 

 crowned sparrows. 



In May of the next year a bevy of these sweet- 

 voiced lyrists visited ray suburb and remained fully 

 two weeks, until I began to hope they would 

 become permanent residents. In this I was dis- 

 appointed, but while here they favored me with 

 many a delightful chorus. After hearing them so 

 frequently, I am prepared to add a few observations 

 to those already made, on their minstrelsy. The 

 opening notes are prolonged and very sweet, clear, 

 bell-like and somewhat sad, and might be repre- 

 sented thus : " o-o-h, d-e-a-r^ d-e-a-r^' uttered 

 with a peculiar swinging movement, hard to de- 

 scribe. After the opening sylhibles the song 

 becomes accelerated and might be called a trill, 

 often gathering momentum toward the close and 

 ending with an emphatic repetition of the last 

 syllable, thus : " Wliat-can-the-matter-he-he-he ? " 

 The lay is admirable in technique, and I hope 

 some trained musician will sometime represent it 

 on the musical scale. 



