THE VOICE. 
45 
sixth tone ( Horsfield ). Birds acquire, by training, a much 
greater compass of voice in comparison with what they 
at first possessed. I have heard a Bullfinch piping the 
German song, “Von hohen Olymp herab ward uns die 
freude,” a song having a compass of ten whole tones, 
with an accuracy perfectly exquisite. 
We may determine the nature and value of a bird’s 
song according to the richness of its tones and strophes, 
and also the manner of their combination into melody. 
When we find single strophes distinctly composed by the 
bird, executed in a sharp and definite manner, they may 
be considered as forming a composition, inasmuch as it is 
a distinct motivo .* On the other hand, when the notes 
are continually changing, and never form a distinct 
strophe, it is called a song; the mere number of tones 
and strophes has no bearing on the question. The single 
strophe of our Chaffinch is as much a composition as the 
Nightingale’s, with twenty to twenty-five in it; on the 
contrary, the Warbler’s simple song, and the Lark’s rich 
one, are equally songs; for the strophes of the former are 
clearly and distinctly rounded off, while those of the 
latter are obscure and vaguely intermingled. Now, the 
fuller and purer the tones, and the richer in strophes the 
whole melody, the higher is the rank of the songster: this 
rank depends principally upon the presence or absence of 
disagreeable tones. The Nightingale, Skylark, and Wood¬ 
lark ( A . arborea), the Greater Whitethroat (S. cinerea ), 
and the Garden Warbler (S. hortensis ), when they sing 
use none but pleasant and melodious notes; whereas the 
Melodious Warbler (S. Hippolais ), although it sings 
* The German word “ Schlag,” in contra-distinction to “ Gesang” (song), has no 
real equivalent in English; and thus the translators have been obliged to express 
the author’s meaning somewhat at length.—IF. J. 
