DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 19 



the author of Rec. 5 went to the other extreme and used a thin, 

 weak tone, decidedly warbler-Hke, while the author of Recs. 7 

 and 8 differed greatly from most Oven-birds in the possession 

 of a just and distinct intonation. Still more in the other 

 song-properties is variation common. The rate of speed is 

 slow or rapid, the pitch is high or low, the couplets alter 

 in number from three to eleven, the position of the accent 

 shifts here and there, the unaccented note (" er ") is sometimes 

 dropped completely and that famous crescendo, to which so 

 many have pinned their faith as to an immutable ear-mark of 

 identification, exhibits the extreme limits of deviation possible 

 to a musical expression! I have known songs to increase in 

 power during the deliverance of six "teachers" from ppp to 

 f f f, or in other words the first notes carried no farther than a 

 few feet and the last half a mile, while other songs betrayed the 

 merest suspicion of crescendo! 



A comparison of the records (Plate II) indicates these varia- 

 tions precisely. For instance, the rate of speed in Record 2 is 

 marked as h = 200, which means it was rendered presto quick, 

 while Rec. 4 is still faster, h = 220. On the other hand, 

 Rec. 9 ( J^ = 160) is about two-thirds as fast, while Rec. 3 was 

 sung in such slow irregular rhythm that it could not be timed 

 with a metronome. An illustration of a typical crescendo 

 effect is found in Rec. 4. In the space of eleven couplets it 

 increases in intensity from a soft tone (pp) to a very loud 

 tone (ff). On the other hand, Rec. 5 exhibits no crescendo 

 whatever! The general pitch of Rec. 9, (page 21), is low, 

 while that of Rec. 5 is an octave higher. When we come to the 

 position of the unaccented note ("er") we find it is higher 

 than the accented one ("teach") in Rec. 1, while in Rec. 2 

 just the contrary is true, and in Rec. 4 the unaccented note in 

 the first four couplets is dropped entirely! This omission seems 

 rather common, for it occurs in four of my records. 



But these variations, of tone-quality, time, intensity and 

 pitch, are, after all, not more than one would expect from a 

 persistent songster, whose song is not nearly so constant as 

 bird-students have supposed. Far more unusual is the occa- 



