APPENDIX. 193 



BOBOLINK. Contin. 



il mulk " (God alone is king, etc.) ; we may absolutely 

 refuse to listen to Bechstein's dreadful zozozos and 

 tsissisis and kigaigais saddled on the prima donna of all 

 the choirs of air, but this simple "Liberty, liberty" 

 song, together with certain happy syllables of Emerson 

 and a very few others, may well be allowed to stand. 



" Mounting and hovering on wing at a small height above the field, he 

 chants out such a jingling medley of short, variable notes, uttered with 

 such seeming confusion and rapidity, and continued for a considerable 

 time, that it appears as if half a dozen birds of different kinds were all 

 singing together. Some idea may be formed of this song by striking the 

 high keys of a pianoforte at random singly and quickly, making as many 

 sudden contrasts of high and low notes as possible. Many of the tones 

 are in themselves charming ; but they succeed each other so rapidly that 

 the ear can hardly separate them. Nevertheless, the general effect is 

 good ; and when ten or twelve are all singing on the same tree, the 

 concert l is singularly pleasing." Wilson, A. : Amer. Ornithology, vol. ii. 

 (Phil. 1810), p. 50 



" [The sky-lark's song is] not very musical, not so rich as our bobolink's 

 roundelay." Minot, H. D. : in Am. Nat, vol. xiv., 1880, p. 563. 



(Macgillivray says, "The song of the lark is certainly not musical.") 



For a bobolink in the role of a canary, see Litt. Liv. Age, vol. xxix., 

 1851, p. 312. 



1 " The bobolinks are very numerous around my home in Caledonia 

 County, Vt., and I once heard there what seemed to me a very remarkable 

 bobolink concert. There are two butternut-trees growing in the corner 

 of our garden, and my attention was attracted one day by an unusual 

 chattering from that ^quarter. Upon going near, I saw that the trees 

 were filled with bobolinks, every one of which was singing as loud as 

 he could sing. After a short time, one of their number flew away, and 

 to my surprise, every bird stopped singing. Soon they all began again, 

 not together, but one at a time. The first to begin sang the liquid 

 opening notes alone, and just as he started in with the rollicking song 

 that follows, a second struck in with the same sweet first notes, then 

 a third struck in at the same point in his song ; and so it went on, until 

 they were all singing again, and under all the rollicking chatter vibrated 

 the tender undertone of the liquid notes that begin their song. I watched 



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