Mistress Cuckoo 



almost total lack of precise intervals of the scale, 

 without which no song can be imitated, or ex- 

 pressed in black and white. 



The cuckoo stands almost alone in the dis- 

 tinct intonation of his pair of notes ; and their 

 consequent ease of imitation, both in this re- 

 spect, and as regards tone-color, not only has 

 given the bird a world-wide reputation, but was 

 the cause of its selection to represent Nature's 

 songsters in that fairy piece of tonal scenery so 

 artfully devised by Beethoven, in one of the 

 movements of the Pastoral Symphony, wherein 

 the ear absorbs what commonly the eye alone 

 can feed upon. 



Quite as important as tone-color, in deter- 

 mining the character of a song, are rhythm, and 

 inflection, or modulation, of the voice. This is 

 shown in that delicious but decidedly character- 

 less outpour of the goldfinch which is surpassingly 

 sweet-toned, but incoherent and expressionless, 

 from the total absence of any rhythmical swing 

 and marked inflection. On the other hand, the 

 song of the Baltimore oriole displays a definite 

 and vigorously masculine character, in the em- 

 phatically martial accent of one of his phrases ; 

 and, in the midst of that inextricable maze of 

 volubility known as the purple finch's song, one 



