APPENDIX. 193 
Boso.inx. — Contin. 
il mulk” (God alone is king, etc.); we may absolutely 
refuse to listen to Bechstein’s dreadful zozozos and 
tsissisis and kigaigais saddled on the prima donna of all 
the choirs of air,— but this simple “Liberty, liberty” 
song, together with certain happy syllables of Emerson 
and avery few others, may well be allowed to stand. 
“Mounting and hovering on wing at a small height above the field, he 
chants out such a jingling medley of short, variable notes, uttered with 
such seeming confusion and rapidity, and continued for « considerable 
time, that it appears as if half a dozen birds of different kinds were all 
singing together. Some idea may be formed of this song by striking the 
high keys of a pianoforte at random singly and quickly, making as many 
sudden contrasts of high and low notes as possible. Many of the tones 
are in themselves charming; but they succeed each other so rapidly that 
the ear can hardly separate them. Nevertheless, the general effect is 
good; and when ten or twelve are all singing on the same tree, the 
concert! is singularly pleasing.” — Wilson, A.: Amer. Ornithology, vol. ii. 
(Phil. 1810), p. 50 
“ [The sky-lark’s song is] not very musical, not so rich as our bobolink’s 
roundelay.” — Minot, H. D. : in Am. Nat., vol. xiv., 1880, p. 563. 
(Macgillivray says, “The song of the lark is certainly not musical.”) 
For a bobolink in the réle of a canary, see Litt. Liv. Age, vol. xxix., 
1851, p. 312. 
1 “The bobolinks are very numerous around my home in Caledonia 
County, Vt., and I once heard there what seemed to me a very remarkable 
bobolink concert. There are two butternut-trees growing in the corner 
of our garden, and my attention was attracted one day by an unusual 
chattering from that quarter. Upon going near, I saw that the trees 
were filled with bobolinks, every one of which was singing as loud as 
he could sing. After a short time, one of their number flew away, and 
to my surprise, every bird stopped singing. Soon they all began again, 
not together, but one at a time. The first to begin sang the liquid 
opening notes alone, and just as he started in with the rollicking song 
that follows, a second struck in with the same sweet first notes, then 
a third struck in at the same point in Ais song; and so it went on, until 
they were all singing again, and under all the rollicking chatter vibrated 
the tender undertone of the liquid notes that begin their song. I watched 
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