12 



VERTEliliATA. 



liarriiiixton n-inarks tliat " sonio passacjos in the song of a few kinds of birds correspond with 

 the intervals of our lunsioal soak", hut tiiat much the greater part of such a song is not capable 

 of musical nt)tatioii, because — first, the rapidity is often too great, and it is also so uncertain where 

 tlicv niav stop, that it is impossible to reduce the passages to form a musical bar in any time 

 what-^oever; secondly, on account of the pitch of most birds being considerably higher than the 

 most shrill notes of instruments of the greatest compass; and lastly, because the intervals used by 

 birds are commonlv so minute that we cannot judge at all of them from the more gross intervals 

 into whidi our musical octave is divided." We shall not follow this accomplished naturalist through 

 the whole of his interesting observations upon this subject. The table which follows will serve 

 to show his estimate of the comparative merits of some of the leading feathered vocalists. 



barrington's table of musical birds. 



Designed to exhibit the comparatirc merit of British Song Birds. 

 Twenty is supposed to be the point of absolute perfection. 



Xightingalo 



Bliickcap, or Mock-Nightiugale 



Skvlark . . . '^ 



Wo()<llaik 

 Titlark 

 Linnet 

 Goldtinch 

 Cha flinch 

 Greenfinch . 



10. Thrush . 



11. Blackbird . 



12. Robin 



13. Wren . 



14. Hedge-Sparrow 



15. Reed-Sparrow 



16. Aberdevine or Siskin 



17. Redpole 



19 



14 



18 



8 



12 



18 



12 



8 



6 



4 



2 



12 



4 



4 



2 



4 



4 



There have been frequent attempts to express the calls as well as the songs of birds by words, 

 but we think with little success. To the ears of different persons, these sounds usually suggest very 

 different words. In some cases it is no doubt otherwise. "Waterton tells us that in the awful and 

 interminable forests of Demerara, the night-bound stranger sees a spectral shape flit before him sud- 

 denly, crying out, "AVho are you; who, who are you V Another instantly approaches, and, as if 

 commanding some infernal agent to apply the lash to a slave, exclaims — " Work away, work away, 

 work away !" A third appears, and mournfully cries — " Willy come go ; willy, willy, willy come 

 go !" AVilson tells us that the benighted traveler in our western wilds, seated by his camp-fire, is 

 often saluted by a boding wing sweeping down from the trees, with a cry — " Wagh ho, wao-h ho, 

 who cooks for you all ?" Buffon says that one of his servants, who slept in a turret of a castle, 

 heard an owl exclaiming — "Poopoo, poopoo, airae, heme, edme," and supposing himself called, 

 replied — " "\Mio are you there below ? My name's Peter, not Edme." There is no mistaking 

 the strange, hurried cry of the Southern goat-sucker — " Chuck Will's Widows ! Chuck Will's 

 Widow !" and the "Whip Tom Kelly, AVhip Tom Kelly," of the tufted titmouse, is equally distinct. 



But there are other notes of birds the sounds or associations of which arc more equivocal. To 

 our English ears the monotonous, but still wild and plaintive cry of the whippoorwill, would seem 

 to be unmistakably distinct, but to the ears of the Delaware Indian it was simply a repetition of 

 " Weecollis, weecollis." One man thinks he frequently hears the name of "Jim Richardson, Jim 

 Richardson," in the merry jingle of the boblink ; another as definitely makes out the name of 

 "Tom Denney, Tom Denney." The popular school-boy report of his lay is "Bob-o-link, bob-o- 

 link, Tom Denney, Tom Denney, come and pay me the two-and-sixpence you have owed me this 

 year and a half. Come, Tom Denney, Tom Denney ; tshe, tshe, tsh, tsh, tshe !" but others consider 

 the impertinent dun as addressed to Jim Richardson. Among the multitude of interpretations of 

 the song of this bird is the following, which seems to us to express much of its jolly, rollicking 

 humor: 



