476 
HARPER’S MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
be adduced for illustration were it neces¬ 
sary, we find the same evidence that the 
birds, like ourselves, are apparently 
pleased by these rhythmic recurrences. 
Repetition of the same phrase on an¬ 
other pitch is an effect commonly used 
by human composers. Examples may be 
found in the old English song “ Down 
among the Dead Men,” Grieg’s “ Ara- 
bische Tanz,” Pinsuti’s “ Duschinka,” and 
many other compositions for voice or 
instrument. I have noted two instances 
of this effect in bird music—this beauti¬ 
ful example from a wood-thrush: 
J. = 60. |_ 
t_ Pi 
55 
-FP 
Oi 
V 
and this remarkable and melodious ut¬ 
terance of a blue-gray gnatcatcher, a 
bird whose ordinary songs have little 
of the coherent or rhythmical in their 
structure: 
that would do credit to a composer en¬ 
dowed with human heart and brain 
and sympathy: 
J~I 28 .» •. 
More attractive still, from the stand¬ 
point of sentiment, was the following 
combination of two phrases uttered by a 
particularly accomplished chewink: 
J. = 6 4 - 
tr 
hr 
-Cs 
-j 
, rrrrr 
m m » m 
-P*-* 
1 -1 
fe 
• II 
—| 4-f— 
\=d 
u 
It regularly alternated these phrases, 
leaving a pause between sufficient to ef¬ 
fectively disconnect them, yet not so 
great as to destroy the proper sequence. 
I cannot refrain from quoting, as a 
further example, a little field - sparrow 
theme which, simple though it be, has a 
charming grace when it steals over a 
meadow on which lingers the last trace 
of golden light from the setting sun: 
(It should be explained that the phrases 
of the gnatcatcher were not rendered in 
the sequence here shown, but that each 
was given indiscriminately on one of 
the three different degrees of pitch 
indicated, never, however, moving more 
than one tone up or down from the 
last uttered. 
The wood-thrush is justly praised as 
one of our most charming singers. 
This estimate is no doubt largely owing 
to the beautiful quality of its tones, but 
a reference to the example of wood-thrush 
music just given will show that in some 
part at least it is due to the beauty of 
the melodic arrangement of notes. I 
have, too, among my notations a spright¬ 
ly bit of melody from a song-sparrow 
I know of no sound in nature more com¬ 
pletely harmonious with the serenity of 
a summer evening than this simple ves¬ 
per hymn of the field-sparrow. 
Effective combinations are frequently 
produced by separate birds singing an- 
tiphonal phrases. Simeon Pease Cheney 
gives an example of this form of respon¬ 
sive singing taken from chickadees.* I . 
have heard Carolina chickadees thus com- ' 
billing their songs, and have noted oth¬ 
er examples of antiphonal music in the 
singing of field-sparrows, song-sparrows, 
meadow-larks, and chewinks. A few are 
given here and on the next page: 
Field-sparrow No. i. 
*- j- - 
/ 
- 
— 
— ' — 
— 
-tzf-l 
4 
- 
===] 
fJ 
* Wood Xotes Wild, p. 28. 1891. 
