The Audubon Societies i6i 



great Belgian violinist Ysaye was playing in recital this winter on this side of 

 the water, he appeared before an audience one afternoon in an apparently 

 dejected condition. At the opening of the concert he sat in a chair and, to all 

 appearance, his mind was far away from his fingers. But as he played on, he was 

 borne up and out of himself by the power of his great love of music. He seemed 

 almost to surpass himself in beauty of tone and height of interpretation. 



That day he is said to have received word of the loss of a son in battle. It 

 was his duty to appear before a public unaware of his sorrow. The love of 

 music was at once his comfort and source of triumph. He was reported at 

 the time as saying that music heals otherwise incurable breaches and creates 

 ties never to be broken. I tell you this because the example of a great musician 

 like Ysaye is one we may all well follow. 



If we are not naturally musical, let us cultivate music and at least learn to 

 appreciate it. With the mating, nesting birds all around us, we continually 

 hear the most spontaneous, unstudied bursts of melody, choruses of rare quality, 

 notes expressive of pure joy, and all of this daily demonstration is the accom- 

 paniment of duty and toil. Just think a moment what a change would come 

 to us all if the birds went silently about nesting, if there were no morning 

 matins, no songs at sunset, no cheery call-notes, no sweet responses. 



Will you try to notice some of the following things in connection with 

 bird-music this summer? 



1. Where and when different species of birds sing? 



Where a bird sings means two things really: first, in what locahty it is 

 while singing, woodland, thicket, meadow, field, marsh, seashore or along the 

 roadside; and second, whether it sings on the ground, on a perch, on the wing, 

 in trees, about bushes where it feeds or where it nests or both. 



When a bird sings is a suggestive question, also, for there are birds singing 

 only at dusk, others only by day, others at dawn and sunset with occa- 

 sional bursts of song through the day. Some birds sing while feeding, others 

 feed silently, except for an occasional call, and still other birds seem to follow 

 no particular rule. 



2. How a bird sings is another question which takes much observation to 

 answer. One way of answering it is to study the mechanism of the throat and 

 learn the parts of that mysterious little song-box called the syrinx. You will 

 recall, perhaps, that what enables a bird to sing is the action of muscles largely, 

 in connection with membranes about and within the lower end of the trachea 

 and the opening of the bronchial tubes. 



We may remember that, in general, the finer and more complicated the song, 

 the larger are the number of song-producing muscles and the more intricate 

 the song-mechanism is as a whole. Another way to answer this question of how 

 a bird sings, is to learn the number of songs it sings, and the quahty of its voice, 

 whether loud and raucous, monotonous, soft and sweet, fuU and flowing or 

 disconnected, clear or lisping, full of energy or weak. 



