THE RHYTHMICAL SONG OF THE WOOD PEWEE. 
BY HENRY OLDYS. 
1 he usual phrases of the Wood Pewee are well known. The 
bird sings so persistently through the summer, when most birds 
are silent, that its melancholy rising and falling tones are familiar 
to all that frequent the woods during the milder season. But that 
these detached phrases are combined into a rhythmical song, 
uttered during the twilight hours of morning and evening, is a 
fact that seems generally to have escaped observation. 
I first heard this interesting utterance in 1894, and not again. 
1st theme. 
P 
2d, or answering theme. 
a 
1st theme repeated. t ' ie ™ e repeated (in 
character)^ 
p- 
1 — r-* 
0 
•— — 
II 
tQ 
H f—d fn-H: 
* -j— H— H 
— 
P s i # ** 
— 1 ^ — 
— * J 
5 ? 1-1 
b 
a that ends the second line does not satisfy the musical sense, 
but leaves the listener in suspense, with the expectation of more 
to follow ; but the note marked b at the end of the fourth line is 
the keynote, and is completely satisfying ; there may be more to 
the song, as in the case of the example quoted, but it is not 
necessary that there should be. The effect is as though a semi- 
colon, a colon, a semicolon, and a period were placed at the ends 
of the respective lines. 
1 Harper’s Magazine, August, 1902, pp. 477-478. 
