CHAPTER VII. 



The attempt to convey by note to any one an 

 idea of mnsical sound different from what is gener- 

 ally accepted as music I realize is a questionably 

 useful task ; but in my estimation it is tlie only 

 practical way of recording those familiar sounds of 

 N^ature which all of us should school ourselves to 

 know and trace to their proper source. I would 

 suggest, therefore, to those who unfortunately can 

 not read music, to refer the bird songs to some mu- 

 sical member of the family, who, with the aid of the 

 piano, will solve the enigmatical characters and thus 

 produce a close imitation of bird melody. 



The best thing to know about a bird is his 



song ; and this can undoubtedly be recorded with 



perfect accuracy by musical signs ; but toiie it is not 



possible to record, especially if it is broken into 



quarter-tones and eighth-tones. This is exactly what 



the bird does, and consequently it is extremely dif- 



107 



