" ri i\; .Mum;!:, 'I'h, Fox Sparrow as a Songster. 1^.1 



u hole song is loud, as in No. 2, but as a rule only t he central phra le 

 while the beginning and end arc soft. A fourth characteristic is 

 subject t<> little change: the rate of time is always last, and I say 

 this notwithstanding thai record No. ( -K my slowest record, was 

 sung only about half as fast, as No. L3, for the former was in great 

 contrast with the majority of the songs, which r;m nearer to the 

 speed of No. 13. Some of the songs, which were not secured, went 

 even faster ami were rung oil' at such extreme speed that they could 

 hardly he imitated by a human whistler. Jt is this speed which 

 gives the songs their lively character. There is then practically 

 no variation in these four relations, — quality of tone, pitch, in- 

 tensity and time ami these are the fundamental relations of music. 

 When we come to the study of more general characteristics, we 

 find there are others which are practically constant. As a whole 

 the Fox Sparrow's song may he described as follows: it opens with 

 two 'chechs,' the low call-note, much like the Hermit Thrush's 

 beginning, then the main song starts high arid soft and bursts 

 forth into extremely loud sounds, accenting heavily a characteristic 

 falling phrase of three notes and finally ends as soft as it hegan, 

 hut usually at lower pitch. It may also close with two high call- 

 notes <>f poor musical quality. The opening and closing call-notes 

 aie indicated as near as possible to the proper pitch in record No. 5. 

 All the songs of GrOSSe Isle, at the height of the song-season, except 

 No. 4, possessed them. Their absence from records 2 and 3 is due 

 to tin' fad that in these the exact pitch could not be determined. 

 The.M- nuns arc not, however, important, hut the central phrase is. 

 It is the most noticeable part of the song and always consists of a 

 sharp drop in pilch from the first note to the second and a subse- 

 quent slight rise from the second to the third. The drop may be a 

 'fifth,' 'fourth,' or 'second,' hut the rise is almost invariably 

 a half tone. Each one of the three is accented just as heavily and 

 sung just as loud as the other two and, except in No. I, each tone 

 is given the same amount of time. Throughout the records this 



phrase i- indicated by brackets above the score. Ninety-five per- 

 cent of the songs have it, I should judge, and the rest rudimentary 

 traces. In fad it was so characteristic that I got in the habit of 

 disregarding songs that possessed it and recording all that evinced 

 tendencies to do away with it. The result is, I have such records 



