150 C. N. Allen on Songs of the Western Meadow Lark' 



produces them. These tones have a trace of the quality of a rich, 

 pure alto voice, when singing helow "middle C." The relative 

 pitch is generally correct ; though a few of the songs may be out 

 of the way a semitone or even a tone. 



The melodies of these various forte songs are correct. Many 

 years of familiarity with the study of music enables me to speak 

 positively on this point. But the bird occasionally varies the 

 melody in one or two notes. In No. 8, the lower "A" is some- 

 times changed to "B." Numbers 7 and 13, cited above, also 

 furnish a case in point. 



I am somewhat uncomfortably conscious that this paper sadly 

 conflicts with some of the statements made in a most delightful 

 article in the May number of " Harper's Monthly Magazine." 

 1878, entitled " Song Birds of the West." But may it not be 

 that the eminent writer is not a musician? 



He speaks of the song of the Western Lark ; there are mam 

 very distinct songs, as this paper shows. I cannot apply the writer's 

 syllables, " tung\ tung\ tung-ah — twil'lak, twil'lah, tung\" 

 to any of the bird's songs that I have heard, and get them to iit 

 in any way. Even notes, the best representatives of musical 

 sounds, give but a partial idea of these melodies : how much less 

 will syllables accomplish it ! While the songs of some Oscincs 

 seem to contain sounds which are accompanied by a kind of 

 articulation (that of the "Shore Lark" being one), andean be 

 partially represented by syllables, I have as yet heard nothing of 

 the kind in any of the songs of the bird under consideration. 

 They are sung in tones pure and simple, which have no more 

 articulation or syllabication than those of the flute or violin. 

 Then the first part of a song, supposing " lung, tung\ tung- 

 ah" to indicate it, never has, in so far as I have heard, more than 

 two notes in succession which are " alike intone and accent:" 

 nor have I been able to identify the " sort of half trill " in the 

 second part ; although I can, in some songs, detect the k ' rising 

 inflection," and several songs end in a note similar to the first. 



Regarding the piano song, I should have said above that it is by 

 no means as frequently sung as the forte songs. A bird will 

 repeat a forte song a score of times, leaving silent intervals 

 between the repetitions, instead of filling them in. as he some- 

 times does, with the piano song. 



I have frequently heard the bird sing a forte song while on the 

 wing, sometimes repeating it twice before alighting. 



