THE WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. *>\ 



of Maine, and Burroughs in the great forests north of 

 Quebec, found this Sparrow in great numbers; and it is 

 found equally common in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 

 The notation of its song could be easily written on the 

 musical staff. Beginning generally on the fifth note of the 

 scale, after the first syllable, it ascends to the eighth or 

 last note, and ends in four syllables more. After the first 

 syllable of the song the bird will sometimes utter the 

 second on the second or third note of the scale above, and 

 then dropping back will render the remaining three sylla- 

 bles on the usual pitch for the ending. I have heard it 

 begin on the last note of the scale, and after sounding two 

 syllables, drop to the sixth interval for the remaining three 

 syllables, thus giving a beautiful minor effect. If several 

 are singing after the first-named or ordinary manner, they 

 may each perform on a different key, one responding to the 

 other from different dead trees or tall stubs in the neighbor- 

 hood. The charm of the song is principally in the pathos 

 of the tones, which resemble those of the song proper of the 

 Chickadee, being an inimitably tender and vibrating or 

 tremulous whistle. There are' few bird-songs which are so 

 affecting to an aesthetic nature as is this simple pastoral. 

 The tenderest and most sympathetic ideas, with a tinge of 

 melancholy, find their expression in these strongly charac- 

 terized notes, which, as Thoreau says, "are as distinct to 

 the ear as the passage of a spark of fire shot into the dark- 

 est of the forest would be to the eye." All such representa- 

 tions of this song, as "pea-body, pe-a-body, pe-a-body" or, "all 

 day whittling, whittling, whitling" or, " ah! te-te-te-te-te-te-te-te- 

 te," are mere caricatures, furnishing at best but a rude 

 suggestion of its plaintive, tender melodiousness. 



To introduce this bird more fully, his length is 6.00; 

 crown black, with line of white through the center; lines 

 21 



