FAMILY Vlreonidae. 



Red-eye have less syllables if I may be allowed to call a 

 single tone a syllable and there are no sweeping tones 

 like those of the Solitary. It is true that there are some 

 notes exactly like the Red-eye's, and others with an inflec- 

 tion of voice reminiscent of the Solitary's, but there is 

 nothing more than that as far as resemblances go. The 

 actual character of the song is better expressed in musi- 

 cal terms, and it seems to me no other terms are adequate; 

 the rhythm is widely interrupted, the tempo is moderate not 

 agitate, at best the slurred notes show a comparatively 

 short sweep compared with those of the Solitary and none 

 of them show the staccato dots appearing in the song of the 

 Red-eye (see page 151). 



3 Times va. 



- ^f 3 f 



Then, the Philadelphia Vireo being the smallest of the 

 family, very naturally the song is higher pitched, or, 

 approximately a full major third above the average 

 voice of the Red-eye. That is one of the differences 

 between the songs of the Veery and Bicknell's Thrush, 

 the voice of the latter being almost invariably higher than 

 that of the former. Mr. William Brewster writes of this 

 Vireo's song, "But these differences are of a very subtile 

 character and like most comparative ones they are not to 

 be depended upon unless the two species can be heard 

 together."* The differences to which Mr. Brewster alludes 

 are three; musical pitch, dynamics, and rhythm, all of 

 these qualities can be and are shown on the musical staff 

 and that settles the matter of "differences" whether 

 subtile or not. Look at my records of the various Vireos' 

 songs, there are no two of them alike. Certainly such 

 music requires attentive and critical study otherwise I do 



*Vide, The Auk, Vol. II., p. 5. 

 294 



