HESPEROMYS LEUCOPUS. 
171 
from him. His song was not a chirp , but a continuous song of mu- 
sical tone, a kind of to-wit-to-wee-woo-woo-wee-woo, quite varied in 
pitch.” 
The most extended and interesting account that I have seen of a 
singing Hesperomys is from the pen of the Rev. Samuel Lockwood. 
The subject of his sketch was caught in Florida by Philip Ryall, 
Esq., and was presented to Dr. Lockwood, who named it Hespie. 
Its vocal powers were extraordinary, and two of its most frequently 
repeated performances were termed respectively the Wheel Song 
and the Grand Role , and were expressed in musical notation by Mr. 
Ferris C. Lockwood. After describing her ordinary songs in great 
detail, Dr. Lockwood observes : “A remarkable fact in the above 
role is the scope of little Hespie’s musical powers. Her soft, clear 
voice falls an octave with all the precision possible ; then at the 
wind-up, it rises again into a very quick trill on C sharp and D. 
“ Though it be at the risk of taxing belief, yet I must in duty record 
one of Hespie’s most remarkable performances. She was gamboling 
in the large compartment of her cage, in a mood indicating intense 
animal enjoyment, having woke from a long sleep, and partaken of 
some favorite food. She burst into a fulness of song very rich in its 
variety. While running and jumping, she rolled off what I have 
called her Grand Role, then sitting, she went over it again, ringing 
out the strangest diversity of changes, by an almost whimsical trans- 
position of the bars ; then without for an instant stopping the music, 
she leapt into the wheel, started it revolving at its highest speed, 
and went through the Wheel Song in exquisite style, giving several 
repetitions of it. After this she returned to the large compartment, 
took up again the Grand Role, and put into it some variations of 
execution which astonished me. One measure I remember was so 
silvery and soft, that I said to a lady who was listening, that a canary 
able to execute that would be worth a hundred dollars. I occasionally 
detected what I am utterly unable to explain, a literal dual sound, very 
like a boy whistling as he draws a stick along the pickets of a fence. 
