258 Notes. 



Some birds, however, occasionally touch notes of our scale, 

 and sometimes, though rarely, two in succession. The Cuckoo, 

 as has often been noticed, sings a major or a minor third when 

 it first arrives; not that the interval is always exact. The 

 Thrush may now and then repeat two or three notes many times 

 over, which almost, if not quite, answer to notes in our scale, 

 usually from C to F of our treble scale. The Nightingale's 

 crescendo is a good instance of a single definite note ; the song 

 of the Chiff-chaff is perfectly plain and unvaried, but its two 

 notes have never corresponded, when I have tested them, to 

 an interval of our scale. Mr. A. H. Macpherson writes to me 

 (Aug. 1886) that he has heard on the Briinig Pass, in Switzer- 

 land, three Chiff-chaffs singing at once, all in a different pitch. 

 No. i was about a semitone above No. 2 ; No. 2 about a 

 quarter of a tone above No. 3 : the interval being the same in 

 all cases. As my correspondent is a violin-player as well as an 

 ornithologist, his observation may be taken as accurate. The 

 Yellow-hammer's curious song, which I examined carefully, 

 may certainly be given in musical notation as keeping to a 

 single note (often C or C sharp), but the concluding note of 

 the song it is almost impossible to represent, for the pitch of 

 the original note is raised or lowered by an interval varying 

 from a minor third to less than a semitone. It is to be noted 

 that in this species different individuals (according to my 

 observation) have different modifications of the song; the 

 Yellow-hammers in South Dorset (1886) struck me as singing 

 in a different manner from our Kingham birds, though it would 

 be almost impossible to describe the difference. I think I 

 have noticed the same in the case of the Chaffinch. I have a 

 note, made while travelling in Belgium, to the effect that the 

 Chaffinches there did not seem to sing precisely the same 

 song as ours in England. On the other hand, some obser- 

 vations which I made last year on the Chiff-chaffs two notes 

 in different localities led me to believe that the various birds 



