31 



These notes may refresh your memory, and help fix the call or 

 song in your mind. 



Birds do not really articulate, or if they do, the sounds are 

 mostly vowels:^ yet we may imagine that they enunciate 

 words. In learning the songs of birds one may take the notes 

 of some common loud singer, like the robin, as a standard, and 

 by comparison determine how those of other species differ from 

 it. This is good training for the ear. Some people cannot see 

 any difference at first between the songs of the robin and the 

 wood thrush, but to the initiated they have nothing in com- 

 mon. In quality of tone beginners usually see little difference 

 between the songs of the Baltimore oriole, the robin, the 

 scarlet tanager, and the rose-breasted grosbeak. Nevertheless, 

 the oriole's lay is almost a pure whistle, the tune varying much 

 with different individuals; the robin's song is a bold warble, a 

 little strident in places; the tanager sings a weaker, finer note, 

 like an undeveloped, hoarse robin; and the grosbeak has a 

 beautiful clear warble, rather loud at times, but perfectly 

 pure and mellow. 



Unfortunately for the novice, a bird may have two or more 

 distinct songs. Some commonly have many, while rarely do 

 two individual birds of a species sing precisely the same tune; 

 but this disparity only makes the study of their vocal powers 

 more interesting. Occasionally a very gifted individual will 

 eclipse the performance of all rivals. The caw of the com- 

 mon crow is well known, but its love notes and its conversa- 

 tional abilities when ministering to its young are seldom recog- 

 nized. In early spring or late winter the crow often gives 

 forth quite musical sounds, and I have heard one closely imitate 

 other birds and animals, though this is probably exceptional. 

 Many singers not ordinarily gifted have beautiful flight songs. 

 It is not generally known that individual meadowlarks are 

 fine singers when in flight. 



1 Mr. Francis H. Allen, who kindly consented to read the manuscript of this paper, makes the 

 following comments: " Doubtless consonants sometimes seem to be present in bird notes when a 

 vocal sound is repeated rapidly, but often the effect of a consonant sound is very striking, — r's 

 and I's, and even p's and k's, etc., — but where two consonants appear to be present in a single 

 syllable, I am convinced that they are often uttered almost or quite simultaneously, in a way that 

 is impossible in human speech; that is, a note may have an r and an s in it, and you cannot 

 possibly say which comes first. In syllabifying bird notes we can only approximate them." 



