THE SINGING BIRDS AND THEIR SONGS. 117 



be caught and caged, he will continue to warble more 

 loudly than he did in his native fields, until Septem- 

 ber. 



The notes of birds in general, seem to be arranged 

 without regard to the intervals of the musical gamut. 

 You seldom perceive any thing like artificial pauses or 

 gradations in their time or melody. This proceeds 

 from no deficiency of musical ear, as every singing bird, 

 whUe young, may be taught to warble an artificial 

 tune. They never dwell steadily on one note, but are 

 constantly sliding and quavering, full of slurs and ap- 

 poggiaturas. There are some species whose notes ap- 

 proximate to the artificial modulation ; but it is worthy 

 of notice that these are not classed among singing birds. 

 The whisthng quail utters three notes in his call — the 

 two first alike, except in time, and the third a slide 

 from these to a perfect fifth. The notes of the whip- 

 poorwill resemble those of the quail, his first note being 

 a minor-third above the second, and the third note a 

 fourth above the first, the third note being more perfectly 

 intonated than that of the quail. The common chicka- 

 dee, or blackcap titmouse, frequently in summer utters 

 two notes which make a perfect minor-third on the de- 

 scending scale. It is not improbable that if the notes 

 of the singing birds could be accurately written down 

 on the gamut, they might be found to possess a regu- 

 larity of modulation, corresponding to that which we 

 call the artificial one. 



The lark and the nightingale, which have been made 

 so familiar to us by our acquaintance with English 

 literature, are not inhabitants of America, and their ab- 

 sence is lamented by every lover of nature. There is a 

 species of lark that breeds in the vicinity of Labrador 

 and Hudson's Bay, which has some of the musical 



