FAMILY Turdidm. 



You may call that the Bluebird's note if you choose but 

 there is a certain unsteady, bouncing character to it 

 which can only be properly expressed by the grace note 

 and the succeeding three notes ; or, by this suggestive 

 musical sign: 



_^ Twice & 



It is precisely the Bluebird's method to handle all his 

 notes that way; the little singer does not seem to know 

 how to rest steadily on any one tone I There is a plead- 

 ing quality to his voice a plaintive tenderness which is 

 entirely due to the unsteady character of his notes. No 

 Robin sings this way, however similar the notations of 

 the two birds appear to the eye; for, if one expressed 

 the Bluebird's music by dots it would look exactly like 

 that of the Robin, and as a matter of course musical 

 notation is little more than the scientific placing of such 

 dots. It is therefore very necessary for the reader to 

 pay strict heed to the Italian directions for expression; 

 these will show the fundamental difference between the 

 songs of the two birds. There is so little variety in the 

 music of the Bluebird that the following record suffices 

 to represent its fixed character ; the scope of the voice 

 is limited to a fifth, but as a rule the bird sticks pretty 

 close to a minor third, and to the minor key: 



tfflegretto. Delicdto: sempr* legato et tremolo. 



Even when a number of Bluebirds are singing together 

 very early in the morning, when one would suppose that 

 the song would be at its best, I have scarcely ever heard 

 a singer suggest the major. Here is a song, the minor 

 key of which was unmistakably evident, that came to 

 my ears at half -past five on a morning in June, 1902, in 

 Dublin, N. H. 



3H 



