THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE THRUSHES. 



that the effect is one of a graceful, descending glissando, 

 thus: 



'jfo definite scale 



None of the Thrushes' songs can be fully heard at a dis- 

 tance greater than seventy feet or so from the singer. There 

 are too many charming overtones and undertones which 

 otherwise must be missed, and what is more to the point, 

 the musical scale is not in evidence. The following record 

 of a Hermit's song is ample testimony to the fact: 



Incomplete theme of Hermit Thrush 

 -\as * "-' - rf *'" - 



This was taken from the highway in Campton, N. H., a 

 little less than a quarter of a mile from the point in the 

 woods where the bird sang, July 1, 1918, and again a year 

 later. A near record of the same bird's song included four 

 more notes, distinct, but softer in tone and more rapidly 

 delivered. 



There can be no question whatever about the actuality 

 of these scales upon which the music of the Thrushes and 

 other advanced singing birds is based. I use the term 

 music instead of song advisedly for the latter implies mel- 

 ody, and it is an indisputable fact that most of the so- 

 called songs of the feathered singers are not melodic but are 

 of the nature of free fantasias more or less confined to a 

 very limited form at best never extended beyond the 

 pentatonic scale a scale which is sufficient for the expres- 

 sion of the most beautiful music the world has ever heard. 



xlii 



