20 Oldys, The Singing of Veeries. Vian. 



neglected field of natural history. Because of its difficulty, also, 

 it should be undertaken only by trained musicians. For while 

 much excellent work in describing and differentiating bird songs 

 has been done b}^ naturalists who lack musical training, yet the 

 final word as regards birds' notes must be spoken by the musician, 

 whose education fits him to observe important features that are 

 quite certain to escape the attention of one whose musical ear has 

 never been cultivated. In lectures and writings I have persistently 

 endeavored to arouse the interest of musicians in this fascinating 

 and important phase of ornithological research ; and while my efforts 

 have met with some success, yet there is pressing demand for many, 

 many more properly equipped students. 



Let me take this opportunity to say a few words about the noting 

 of bird songs. Adequate appreciation is not given by either natura- 

 lists or musicians to the fact that a number of problems, not 

 inferior in importance to any to which ornithologists are devoting 

 their energies, require for their solution careful and exhaustive 

 study of the utterances of birds by competent musicians. The 

 question of the extent of the part played by inheritance in specific 

 songs is on a par with similar questions relating to migration, nest- 

 building, feeding, and other activities of birds. The matter of 

 the growth of vocal ability in young birds (which has scarcely 

 been touched) and that of seasonal activity in singing are fully 

 as important as the allied questions of plumage growth and seasonal 

 moult ^- in each case de^'elopment follows normally definite lines 

 dependent on the previous evolutionary history of the species. 

 And such problems as the reason for song, the origin of song, 

 the reason for governance of bird music by laws of rhythmical 

 sequence, similar to — often identical with — laws that govern 

 human music, open up broad fields of research which in interest 

 and value stand unrivaled; for they inseparably connect themselves 

 with one of the greatest, most interesting, and least understood 

 problems of psychology — the origin and development of aesthetic 

 taste in man. 



The young student of bird songs need not be discouraged if he 

 finds his records out of accord with those of other observers; nor 

 should he sweepingly condemn the work of others because of such 

 discrepancy. Because of the great individual diversity of bird 



