CHAPTEK YIL 



THE LITTLE SONGSTERS THE YELLOWBIRD, 



SPARROWS, AND PHCEBE BIRD. 



THE attempt to convey by note to any one an 

 idea of musical sound different from what is gener- 

 ally accepted as music I realize is a questionably 

 useful task; but in my estimation it is the only 

 practical way of recording those familiar sounds of 

 Nature which all of us should school ourselves to 

 know and trace to their proper source. I would 

 suggest, therefore, to those who unfortunately can 

 not read music, to refer the bird songs to some mu- 

 sical member of the family, who, with the aid of the 

 piano, will solve the enigmatical characters and thus 

 produce a close imitation of bird melody. 



The best thing to know about a bird is his 

 song ; and this can undoubtedly be recorded with 

 perfect accuracy by musical signs ; but tone it is not 

 possible to record, especially if it is broken into 

 quarter-tones and eighth-tones. This is exactly what 



the bird does, and consequently it is extremely dif- 



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