Vol. xxx in 



1915 



Correspondence. Oo7 



is of about as much value as the length of the white on the outer primary 

 of a Junco. What we want to know about color is its arrangement or the 

 relative proportion of the various colors on a bird, resulting in color pattern. 

 What we want to know about duration is the relative duration of the indi- 

 vidual notes of a song and this would result in some idea of the song's 

 rhythm. Now the existence of rhythm is denied by Mr. Saunders, al- 

 though oddly enough, it is shown to exist even by his own records. But 

 of this later! The curious thing about it is that duration has always 

 been indicated by the old system' and can be quickly ascertained from 

 any complete record. For instance in Mr. Matthews' record of the 

 Vesper Sparrow's song in his ' Field Book of Wild Birds and Their 

 Music,' the metronome time is given as one quarter note equals 120, 

 which means that 120 of the quarter notes in that song, if it possessed that 

 many, would occupy the time of one minute. From this one graphic 

 symbol it is easy to calculate the duration of that song as exactly 5£ seconds. 

 If it were at all important to give this factor prominence, it would be much 

 simpler to place the symbol "D 5^ S" at the end of the musical staff than 

 to cover the staff with a great number of useless vertical lines. 



But far the most defective part of Mr. Saunders' system is its omission 

 of rhythm. Even the non-musical bird student has recognised its existence, 

 whether consciously or not. This is evident in such syllabic renditions 

 of songs as "Teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher," which indicates quite 

 clearly the observer perceived the fact that the first note of each couplet 

 in that particular Ovenbird's song received a periodically reiterated accent 

 and this is rhythm. It is also indicated in the rendering of the White- 

 throat's song as "Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody." Both of these 

 birds have a splendid sense of rhythm, quite as good, if not better than the 

 average musical performer of the human race. This is even more true of 

 the Whip-poor-will, whose sense of rhythm is so perfect that his constant 

 reiteration of the accented "Whip" can be timed by a metronome exactly. 

 Indeed his rhythm is too perfect to satisfy the human desire for variation, 

 which humans obtain by means of the "ritard" and the "acceleration" 

 and this song, therefore, becomes mechanical and monotonous. That the 

 greater bird songsters are not so monotonous only proves their greater 

 sense for real rhythmical effects, which can seldom be beautiful, when 

 rigidly bound to a mechanical time. It is often true that one cannot 

 check up the greater songsters' rhythm with a stop-watch, such as Mr. 

 Saunders uses, but neither could one do the same with the best human 

 singers, for they frequently ritard and accelerate their time to avoid this 

 very mechanical rhythm, which he seems to believe so essential to music. 



That rhythm does exist in bird songs is curiously proved by Mr. Saunders' 

 own records. In three of his nine, the rhythm is absolutely perfect, indeed 

 mechanical and in the other six it probably existed, although obscured 

 by his method of notation, which among other factors does not record 

 the "accent ". For instance in his record of the Robin's song there is a peri- 

 odical alternation of sets of notes and pauses. Each set of notes consumes 



