VESPER SPARROW. 



The bird's rendering appears as follows: 

 Bva 



p ores. ff dim. 



Lord, LordBateman w-a-s a n-o-b-l-e Lord.Lord,Lord! 



I consider this one of the best and most characteristic 

 productions of the Vesper, though his confreres in other 

 parts of the country by no means cling close to its melo- 

 dic form. Naturally the birds of every locality develop 

 certain provincialisms in song, and the Vesper is no ex- 

 ception to that rule. But he certainly does not attempt 

 to depart from the rhythm which characterizes the song 

 of his species. For example, the above record came 

 from a bird more than a hundred miles away from an- 

 other in Vermont which sang the following: 



This record shows* that the ascending and descending 

 divisions (or halves) remain in the same relative position, 

 although they are in a measure doubled, while the sus- 

 tained tones begin and the chirped or trilled tones end 

 the song precisely as they do in the first record. It is 

 not always the case that the opening tones progress up- 

 ward with exact uniformity; the next record shows a 

 to a lower tone before the trills begin: 



37 



