384 Bird - Lore 



melodies in bird-music, so that there are familiar landmarks by which the 

 beginner may proceed. It is difficult, indeed, to master all notes and songs of 

 even our familiar birds, but not as difficult as it would be if they were detached 

 and remote from any sounds to which we are accustomed in our own music, 

 as the rasping notes of insects, the squeaking of mice, the wild howhng of 

 coyotes, or crackHng and crashing of falhng timber. 



It is possible that one reason why birds so readily seem akin to us at times 

 is on account of their musical calls and rhythmical songs. Some people find a 

 relationship between tones and colors, and are able to learn the tones of the 

 scale, for example, more readily by associating a color with each tone. Be that 

 as it may, we can employ our time this winter to good advantage by learning 

 to recognize the tones which make up the common scale of C, to understand 

 what is meant by the pitch of each tone, to discover why certain tones are more 

 resonant or colorful than others, and to train our ears to catch the rhythm of 

 combinations of tones. Associated tones, we find, depend much upon time for 

 the resulting rhythm, so we must learn to distinguish among the signs indicat- 

 ing the time. A note, for example, may be pitched upon middle C. It has, we 

 will find, a degree of resonance depending upon the number of vibrations 

 which underhe it, a degree that may be compared with other notes of different 

 pitch and different vibration. This note on middle C may be combined with 

 other notes in some sort of rhythmical sequence pleasing to the ear, especially 

 if this sequence forms a true melody. Time, however, is one of the important 

 factors in the making of any rhythm or melody, so we must look again at the 

 note on middle C with which we started, to discover how much time it requires 

 for its enunciation. It may be a whole note or a half-note, a quarter, an eighth, 

 sixteenth, or even thirty-second or sixty-fourth. According to the time it 

 consumes, it will be slow or fast. 



One thing which is often confusing in bird-music is the rapidity with which 

 many of the notes are uttered. A House Wren's song gushes forth in such an 

 uncontrollable hurry that the ear fails at first to distinguish one note from 

 another. With the White-throated Sparrow or Chickadee it is different. Their 

 songs are given rather deliberately and are easy to foUow and to recall. 



The pitch of many bird-notes and -songs is higher than that of much of the 

 music with which we are most familiar, or in some cases, lower, so that we need 

 to make an effort to hear them readily. The low booming of Bitterns at a dis- 

 tance is as difficult for some people to hear as the high, wiry notes of the 

 Grasshopper Sparrow. By training the ear with a tuning-fork to recognize 

 pitch, one great obstacle in learning bird-songs will be overcome. 



The matter of time-intervals between the rhythms making up a song is 

 almost as important as that of the length of the actual notes. It is a particu- 

 larly valuable training for the ear to recognize time-intervals. Compare the 

 songs of three of our common Vireos, the Red-eyed, Yellow-throated, and 

 Warbling. The Red-eyed Viroe's notes are pitched relatively high, are rapid 



