WOODLAND SINGERS. 167 



beyond description, not at all like those of any other 

 bird 1 have ever heard. When I say double-toned, I 

 mean that the musical sound is in a certain sense har- 

 monic* rather than melodic. 



To render this song in so many positive musical 

 signs seems to me an impossibility. To record a 

 number of distinct whistles is an easy matter, but 

 Wilson's thrush does not whistle. The notes are 

 slurred and blended beyond the power of a musician 

 to analyze. My rendering of the general effect 

 would be thus : f 



mollo ace el. 



But sometimes there is a pianissimo fifth cluster 

 of notes, dropping perhaps a musical third below the 

 fourth cluster I have given.;]: The first and fourth 

 clusters are exactly alike ; and to show that I am 



* The musical note of the tree toad is double-toned, and in this 

 respect slightly resembles that of Wilson's thrush. So, also, is 

 that of the night hawk. 



f So difficult is it to decide upon some likeness of the veery's 

 music which may be produced at the piano, that I am tempted to 

 suggest the discordant alternative of striking the first four notes 

 of each cluster simultaneously ; it is at least possible in this way 

 to more truthfully represent the mixed quality of this thrush's 

 notes. 



\ Not infrequently the thrush begins with the second cluster and 

 adds one more cluster at the close of my rendering of the song. 



