FAMILY Vlreonld*. 



the Yellow-throat in a much lower one. But the most 

 striking difference between the voices of the birds is 

 less a matter of key than quality of tone in a word, the 

 Yellow-throat's notes are completely dominated by over- 

 ;md the Red-eye's notes are not. To imitate this 

 effect I hum any tone away down in the base and at the 

 same time whistle up high in a very slurring fashion the 

 three or four notes common to the Yellow-throat's song. 

 Of course, music of that nature does not bear any rela- 

 tion to the full, pure tones of a contralto singer. It is 

 nearer the truth to say, rather, that the Yellow-throat 

 has a violin quality to his voice, or better, a reecttike 

 quality; Bradford Torrey calls it an "organ tone." At 

 any rate there is no clear whistle to this Vireo's music, 

 and on the contrary there is to the Red-eye's music. 

 That is the whole matter in a nut-shell 1 For the rest I 

 may add that the Yellow-throat's tempo is much slower, 

 and that he does not indulge in such an interminable 

 amount of singing 1 Red-eye takes life much less seri- 

 ously, and Mr. Gilbert's sentiments placed in Bunthorn's 

 mouth (in Patience) regarding the aesthetic poet, exactly 

 fit his case: 



" It really does n't matter 

 If it 's only idle chatter 

 Of a transcendental kind I " 



The deliberate way in which the Yellow-throat sings is 

 also another characteristic of the bird which must always 

 separate his song from that of all his relatives. He is 

 never in a hurry, and after singing three or four clusters 

 of slurred notes, thus: 



he gives you plenty of time to think the matter over be- 

 fore he makes another remark, and always, you will no- 



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