8 WOOD NOTES WILD. 



they never so profuse, are not the sum and substance of. 

 bird-songs ; and it is in the solid body of the song that 

 we find the relationship to our own music. The songs of 

 many of the birds may be detected as readily as the mel- 

 odies of " Ortonville " and " Kock of Ages." In passing, one 

 morning last summer, I heard a chewink sing the first 

 strain of the beautiful old conference-meeting tune last 

 named. Though I have never heard any other chewink 

 sing that strain, it was a chewink that sang then, afford- 

 ing startling proof of the variation in the singing of the 

 same birds. The chickadees sing a few long tones in the 

 most deliberate manner ; and nothing this side of heaven 

 is purer. I do not refer to their chick-a-dee-dee-dee chat, 

 though they sometimes connect that with their singing. 

 The chickadee and the wood-pewee have the most devout 

 of all the bird-songs I have heard. 



We all know how moderately and distinctly the little 

 whistling, white-throated sparrow sings his song, and how 

 the tiny black-throated green warbler sends out his few 

 white notes of cheer from among the dark pines. 



Conjecture as we may concerning the growth and de- 

 velopment of birds and bird-songs, we know that the 

 birds now sing in a wonderful manner, using all the 

 intervals of the major and minor scales in perfection of 

 intonation, with a purity of voice and finish of execution, 

 with an exquisiteness of melody, a magnetic and spiritual 

 charm appurtenant to no other music on earth. The 

 horse neighs, the bull bellows, the lion roars, the tiger 



