BIRD-SONGS. 41 



ing to, common though it is, and may easily 

 suggest a number of questions about the origin 

 and meaning of bird music. 



The white-eyed vireo is a singer of astonish- 

 ing spirit, and his sudden changes from one 

 theme to another are sometimes almost start- 

 ling. He is a skillful ventriloquist, also, and I 

 remember one in particular who outwitted me 

 completely. He was rehearsing a well-known 

 strain, but at the end there came up from the 

 bushes underneath a querulous call. At first I 

 took it for granted that some other bird was in 

 the underbrush ; but the note was repeated too 

 many times, and came in too exactly on the beat. 



I have no personal acquaintance with the 

 Western meadow-lark, but no less than twenty- 

 six of his songs have been printed in musical 

 notation, arid these are said to be by no means 

 all. 1 



Others of our birds have similar gifts, though 

 no others, so far as I know, are quite so versa- 

 tile as these three. Several of the warblers, 

 for example, have attained to more than one 

 set song, notwithstanding the deservedly small 

 reputation of this misnamed family. I have 

 myself heard the golden-crowned thrush, the 

 black-throated green warbler, the black-throated 



i Mr. C. N. Allen, in Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological 

 Club, July, 1881. 



