^°'g^^^] General Notes. 57 



•I am not surprised at Mr. Peabody's unsatisfactory comparison of 

 these Gridley songs with the songs of the Minnesota Meadowlark. 

 They do not sing alike, and probably none of our California birds sing 

 or use such language as Mr. Peabody says the Minnesota birds use, for 

 he says those birds say naughty words. Ours never do that, nor do they 

 even use such language as : '■'■ Sci'eep-a-rip-ple-rip 1 1 Take a little si-p^^ t 

 nor '^ Jehu, jaa-hii drink a little!" Those Minnesota birds must be 

 totally depraved. Ours are always well behaved. 



Possibly Mr, Peabody does not interpret them rightl}', and it is quite 

 certain that no two persons would interpret that song language just alike 

 — neither in Minnesota nor in California. Something would probably 

 depend on- the mood that happened to possess the interpreter. 



So much for language songs. If Mr. Peabody, or any one who has a 

 little knowledge of music, will take 'The Auk' of Jan., 1896, to Gridley, 

 on the ranch of Charles Belding, he or they will hear Meadowlark songs 

 that will just fit the musical notations in it, and there will be no doubt 

 about the song or songs I intended to represent, although the second note 

 in number nine should be sol, or a fifth instead of a third; I believe I lost 

 the true pitch in recopj'ing that number. 



Several of those twelve songs have a compass of just an octave, and 

 this is a rather common feature of our Sturnella songs in different parts 

 of California. 



There are several good points in Mr. Peabodv's article in 'The Osprey,' 

 and one of them is his suggestion of using the phonogi-aph in reproduc- 

 ing bird songs. With its aid we may have the pleasure of comparing the 

 notes of the Spade-footed Toad, the Burrowing Owl and the Pigmy Owl 

 with those of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 01 those of the Burrowing Owl 

 with the notes of the European Cuckoo. 



Dr. Coues says in his 'Birds of the Northwest,' "The hooting of the 

 Burrowing Owl is so similar to the notes of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo 

 that I should have been deceived myself on one occasion had I not been 

 forewarned by my friend Cooper ; and secondly, as this gentleman 

 remarks, the noise made by the Spade-footed Toad {Scaphiopus') is also 

 very similar." 



When I first heard the Pigmy Owl I thought I heard a Yellow-billed 

 Cuckoo, and I was then familiar with the notes of the latter. 



Verbal descriptions of bird songs are probably, in most instances, more 

 interesting to the writer of them than to any one else and any one who 

 has been reading such descriptions, without end, during more than half 

 a life time, is apt to w-eary of them and yearn for something more definite. 

 If the phonograph should prove to be unsatisfactory in reproducing bird 

 songs w-e might adopt Lieut. Derby's system of using figures as qualifiers : 

 for instance, a middling good bird song would be a fifty beautiful song; 

 an unsurpassingly beautiful song would be one hundred beautiful; any- 

 thing for even a moderate degree of precision. — Lyman Beldixg, Stockton, 

 Cal. 



