BIRD-SONGS. 41 
ing to, common though it is, and may easily 
suggest a number of questions about the origin 
and meaning of bird music. 
The white-eyed vireo is a singer of astonish- 
ing spirit, and his sudden changes from one 
theme to another are sometimes almost start- 
ling. He is a skillful ventriloquist, also, and I 
remember one in particular who outwitted me 
completely. He was rehearsing a well-known 
strain, but at the end there came up from the 
bushes underneath a querulous call. At first I 
took it for granted that some other bird was in 
the underbrush; but the note was repeated too 
many times, and came in too exactly on the beat. 
I have no personal acquaintance with the 
Western meadow-lark, but no less than twenty- 
six of his songs have been printed in musical 
notation, and these are said to be by no means 
all.t 
Others of our birds have similar gifts, though 
no others, so far as I know, are quite so versa- 
tile as these three. Several of the warblers, 
for example, have attained to more than one 
set song, notwithstanding the deservedly small 
reputation of this misnamed family. I have 
myself heard the golden-crowned thrush, the 
black-throated green warbler, the black-throated 
1 Mr. C. N. Allen, in Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological 
Club, July, 1881. 
