18 FAMILIAR FEATURES OP THE ROADSIDE. 



inclining weed stem, or seated on the margin among 

 the leaves and grasses. 



I know of no bird except tiie white-throated spar- 

 row which sings continuously as " high " as Picker- 

 ing's frog. His song is usually pitched in the key of 

 F minor, and his note is E slurred to F three octaves 

 , .,„ above middle C. Some- 



I . ^ ' ' f \ times, however, I detect 



jnmov 



other tones pitched low- 

 er, perhaps in D ; but E 

 is generally the dominant note, in proof of which I 

 will give William Hamilton Gibson's concurrent tes- 

 timony. He says, " The phee, phee, pliee, phee is 

 uttered in the note E four octaves above middle 

 C." But Mr. Gibson would have more correctly 

 said E in ^e, fourth octave above, because the treble 

 register ends at the fourth C above the middle 

 one. 



How phenomenally high both the Peabody bird 

 and the Pickering's frog sing we quickly learn if we 

 go to the piano and strike the highest E and B of the 

 instrument (C is the final note) ; the bird outstrips 

 the frog by about four tones and reaches B with ap- 

 parent ease and undiminished power. After long cul- 

 tivation I have succeeded in clearly whistling B flat, 

 but with greatly reduced force ; yet these little singers 

 in the wooded hollow have golden, liquid whistles 



