108 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



ficult to know whether he means to sing A or A 

 sharp, or whether, on account of a facile change in 

 the quality of his note, he means to sing A at all ! 

 But, on the other hand, there is no denying it, the 

 bird sings distinctly a minor or a major third, and 

 also fifths and octaves, and not infrequently a good 

 bit of the chromatic scale. This simply means that 

 the bird sings conventional music, and we are 

 justified in recording it with conventional musical 

 signs. 



Wagner's bird jsong in Siegfried is nothing more 

 musical than an American thrush can perform ; the 

 thirds are true to the thrush's idea of music. I place 

 the notes here for comparison with the song of the 

 hermit thrush : 



Compare this with the notes which I have recorded 

 farther on (in Chapter X), belonging to the hermit, 

 and estimate which would be the more difficult bit for 

 the mocking bird to learn ! But the imitative music 

 of a bird is artificial and only interesting because it 

 is remarkable and curious. The natural song of any 

 bird is sweeter and more lovely by far than the bald 

 whistle notes it can be taught to imitate. A bull- 



