BIRD NOTES. 63 



fume. And yet, as in the buzzing insect din of the August fields, 

 how few of us ever seek to analyze the units of the complex 

 unison ! Here is this great bird-symphony which fills the June 

 morning of a continent with unceasing harmony, while only the 

 notes of a few prominent performers are relieved against the vast 

 perspective of sound. Our own immediate choir extends even 

 to the horizon's brim, many of these perfectly audible ripples of 

 sound doubtless finding their vocal centre on the hill a half a 

 mile or more away: all intermingled and entangled, and though 

 never arrested or swerved in their course, only an occasional note 

 more penetrating than the rest reaching our imperfect ears un- 

 broken ; while from the nearer woods below, the neighboring or- 

 chard, the meadow, and the sky, each contributes its faithful voice 

 to the ever-precious medley. 



Few people would seem to master the art of seeing with their 

 ears perceiving, locating the precise source of sound for the 

 analytical resources of the second sense are not fully appreciated. 

 The eye may view the panorama as a unit, and yet revel in its 

 elements at will. Even so the ear, while sensitive to the unison, 

 may resolve the same to its units of sound. Indeed, a trained 

 musical ear detects, almost without effort, the various parts in a 

 harmony, while an immortal Beethoven, even though humanly 

 deaf, traces from the music of his exalted interior vision the ele- 

 ments of a vast overwhelming unison, apportioning to each crude 

 instrumentalist the orchestral score by which less favored hu- 

 manity may hear the echo of that divine inspiration. In a more 

 modest degree, this analytical power may be brought to bear 

 upon the oratorio of the birds. 



On these June mornings I have repeatedly asked my more or 

 less ornithological friend to name such individual songs as he 

 can detect, the result being generally a list of from seven to ten 

 of the more prominent vocalists, prominent generally because of 

 their proximity. " Do you know the song of the purple finch ?" I 

 ask. "Yes, perfectly," is the reply. "Can you not hear it now 

 almost continually ?" But careful listening fails to detect the 

 song. Focus your ear on the summit of yonder spruce by the 



