Music of Bird Songs

But the feature about bird songs that appeals most strongly to one is their har­mony, that reaches the musical sense which every one possesses in some degree. As one may plan to attend a concert to hear some of the fine musical produc­tions of the human voice, so one may plan to attend the morning or evening chorus of the birds to hear some of the fine musical productions of the bird's voice.

Each kind of music has its accompaniment. The human voice is usually accompanied by some instrument, which adds to the charm of the voice. The accompaniment of bird music is the natural sur­roundings in which it is rendered, the things that we associate with it. A beautiful sunset may be the accompaniment of the song of the vesper sparrow, a quiet wood on a hill-slope that of the hermit thrush, and a little tree-bordered brook that of the kinglet. These natural accompaniments are closely interwoven with the songs and add greatly to our enjoyment of them.

Methods of recording bird music. Several plana have been used for describing and recording bini songs. People differ so much in their way of inter­preting bird songs that no one method of description will be clear to all.

One of the simplest methods of recording bird songs is to use syllables sounding like the song of the bird. In some cases this works very well, as in the case of the chickadee and some other birds which. have been named from their song. In other cases the attempts to describe the song by syllables are not 80 successful. as different syllables may be used by different people. Following are some examples of attempts that have been made to describe songs this way:­

Red-winged blackbird: kong-quer-ree, or o-lea-lee, or gug lug-eee. These all agree in having three syllables and in having the last syllable end in e. Another way of recording songs is to use a series of dots or dashes to indicate the number of syl­lables and the difference in pitch. The song of the nut-sided warbler might be represented thus:

This means that the song has six syllables and that they are all on the same pitch except the next to the last, which is higher than the others. This indicates that the notes are generally delivered in groups of three, with an occasional two-note group. Still another method of recording bird songs is the attempt to write them on the musical scale used for human music.

Described in words, this last means that first come two long tones of equal length, then three groups of triplets, each group being equal in length to one of the long notes; and in each triplet the middle note is the shortest, the first note being equal to three of these and the last note equal to two of them.

Similarity of bird music to human music. There is something of interest in the song itself as a musical production divested of its harmony and surroundings. Mr. Henry Oldys, who has made a special study of bird songs for a number of years, finds some interest­ing similarities between bird music and human mu­sic. First, the resemblances in form of structure are so close that it is possible to record many bird songs on the same musical scales that are used for human music.

One especially remarkable point of resemblance be­tween bird and human music, however, cannot be too strongly emphasized. I have found the wood pewee and the wood thrush uttering songs, in some cases identical, in others nearly so, in structural form with many of our four-time ballads and hymns. This form is governed by the following unwritten ruIe: the first and third lines are identical; the second and fourth are identical in notes or character, except that the second ends with a note that leaves the musical sense suspended, and the fourth with one that satisfies it, the keynote. The wood pewee song follows this form strictly.

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