BIRD SONGS 



Miss Florence H. Sturtevant, Barre 



One morning in early spring, when the birds were returning 

 to gladden us with their happy music, I heard a gay little 

 song of a song sparrow. I looked out, and there, on the 

 topmost peak of the barn, sat the little singer. He 

 gave me the song again and again, lifting his head and pour- 

 ing forth his happiness in its lively melody. After that, 

 other song sparrows sang their beautiful songs, but none 

 seemed to have the charm of that first, gay, lilting tune that 

 announced the approach of the happy summer. 



When the year had rolled around, and brought the spring 

 again, there came another bright morning, when my attention 

 was arrested instantly by that familiar song again. Look- 

 ing out, I saw my little friend sitting on his favorite perch, 

 the roof of the barn, singing his song over and over, for my 

 sole benefit. But after a while he changed the melody, and 

 showed me that that was not the only song he knew, giving 

 a song in a different key, and in different time. 



All that summer he sang near the house and garden. Next 

 year I listened for him in vain, but one day I did hear him 

 at the bouse of a neighbor. The next year he came to a 

 hillside pasture near a swamp not far away. I could always 

 recognize him by his song. 



For the past four years I have taken delight in writing 

 down the songs of some of our common birds. From the 

 song sparrows alone I obtained, the first spring, a dozen dif- 

 ferent songs, not even going out of the house to do so, but 

 taking those that came from the garden and near by, and 

 locating the pitch by the piano, and then writing down the 

 song. This was before I had ever read any book on bird 

 music. Soon afterward I read Schuyler Mathews's "Field 

 Book of Wild Birds and their Music," and the reading of that 

 book helped me to a better appreciation of bird music. 



To quote from this book : "There are two things to consider 

 in the study of bird music, time and tune. \^arious birds 



