140 C. N. Allen on Songs of the Western Alcadoiv Lark. 



frightening the bird. One should not be more than fifty feet away, 

 or he will fail to catch the beauties of this song, and even then 

 all else should be silent. I have called this the soft song. I will call 

 it rather the piano song, and those of the loud class, forte songs, 

 so as to readily distinguish them. The piano song has tones very 

 subdued and ineffably sweet and liquid. Often in the midst of 

 soft warbles, runs, and trills, will be heard the music of one of 

 the forte songs, only given in such a quiet way as to seem like an 

 echo. Two or three times, also, in the course of his song, he 

 introduces two antiphonal musical passages, the second being a 

 sort of answer to the first, and completing it. The third bar of 

 No. 25 is an example of this. 



The piano song, whenever I have heard it, has always had one 

 of the forte songs as a prelude, and fills the interval between each 

 repetition of the latter. The moment the piano song is finished, 

 a forte song is introduced, immediately followed again by the 

 piano song, and this continues until there have been several repe- 

 titions of the pair of melodies, occupying, in their production, 

 from three to five minutes. While the forte songs consume but 

 three or four seconds, the piano songs last from 20 to 25 seconds. 



The piano song has such length, contains so many notes, and 

 is sung with such rapidity that it is very difficult to reduce it to 

 musical characters. While my ear retains one passnge, and my 

 pencil is writing it, the bird sings the whole song, and has per- 

 chance flown away, leaving me with only a fragment. I hope 

 to secure the entire melody (or several of them if they exist). 

 by catching detached portions, and arranging them in their order. 

 Melody, time, and pitch must all be grasped at once, and much 

 practise can alone accomplish it. Were it only to hear the mel- 

 ody played upon piano or violin, the task of retaining it in mem- 

 ory long enough for transcription would be comparatively easy. 



This paper contains twenty-five of the forte songs of the West- 

 ern Meadow Lark. This number is probably only a small 

 percentage of the melodies of this class contained in the bird's 

 repertory. I have heard many other melodies which the want of 

 pencil and paper, or obstacles of other kinds,- prevented me from 

 taking down. No. 26 I heard April 5, just at dark, while riding 

 in one of the gulches of Green Mountain, and retained it in 

 memory until I reached home. 



All the forte songs have clear, ringing tones, which are audible 



