BIRD-SONGS INTERPRETED 



WHEN the bird-choir is in full song, as it 

 is during May and June, it is interesting 

 and often perplexing to seek to unravel the 

 different phrases of melody, and distinguish 

 them one from another. The beginner in 

 bird-study will find this a more difficult task 

 than he imagines. He will be embarrassed 

 both by the confusion of tongues, the ver- 

 itable Babel of songs, and by the fact that 

 there are such slight shades of difference 

 between the songs of several birds of allied 

 species. The songs of the various sparrows, 

 for instance, are much alike in general char- 

 acter, and it takes an ear trained to details 

 to tell which is which. Add to these more 

 general causes of confusion the fact that 

 different individuals of the same bird fam- 

 ily often have slight idiosyncrasies and vari- 

 ations of songs, and the difficulty of identi- 

 fying our multitudinous summer songsters 

 by their notes becomes trebled. 



In my own endeavors to name birds from 



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