The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1894-03-23
miscellaneous.
What the BoboIink Sings.

/ HarperS Magazine.
How have the bird historians and
poets labored in it's whirliDg rapids
cast their hooks and nets, as it were,
| to catch the bursting bubbles in its
ripping wake! Listen that pellmell,
gushing rhapsody from the meadow
below-a seXtet, with obligato and
piccolo variations-all from a single
| throat. Can it be possible, indeed,
that yonder sable minstrel swaying on
the dock is alone responsible for all
this Babel? Hank? moment more
and he will find his breath again.
There "Conk wink a wheedle,
bob O. linkum linkum linkum.n Such
is often the Introductory refrain, once
or twice repeated, with a brief inter
val But who shall follow the subse
quent vocal revelations Even though
possible of analysis by the ear, would
it not take six pens in simultaneous
effort to chronicle Who knows what
unsupported melody may not be sub
merged in that tiny impulsive torrent?
The temperate glide Of the music-boX
cylinder yields long and pleasing
strain to the ear but what is the chaos
when from defective machinery that
barrel is permitted to revolve its Cir
cult in a few seconds Such is the
parallel always suggested by this song
of the bobolink. | feel that beneath
all that dizzy tintinnabulary some rare
melody is smothered. 0 Bob what
precious strain might we not disclose
to the world could we but control the
wild spring impulse within your breast
and put a fiywheel on your vocal ma
chinery.
From time to time through long
period of years have added an occa-
sional note or two to my singular
vocabulary caught from this meadow
doggerel-a syllable here, word
there, from my trip across the meadow,
a few more from my covert by the
stone wall, or whole string of them
as | lay beneath the elder bush, while
the minstrel swayed upon the blossom
ed roof overhead. Certain notes
would seem easily transferable, almost
as though implying an Anglo-Saxon
intention on the part of the bird, but
others can only be Theoretically sug-
gested. Here is the list, copied from
my random notes covering a number
of years. And what a pot pOur'Ti they
make when strung together, with oc-
casional interpretations for sequence
''Conk a wink a wheedle, bob O
linkum linkum Jingle, jingle up a
ditty bob-jingle for the bonny Missus
Link um-see see keep an eye up
here my sweet; see see hear me
tinkle tinkle sprinkle such liquid
meadow glee wet your whistle bob
gush a gurgle scatter splatter such
a carol as she alone can follow follow
pipe it, pipe it bob % tintinnabulate
for temperance wink a seeble seeble;
here | go across the clover-temper-
ance, O!-sprink a jinkle sprinkle
treble-bursta bubble-purl a babble,
gable glee ;-shake it out upon the
meadow chink a wink wheedle
see look ZEE look ZEE ninkum ninkum
deacon yonder see ;-yessir yessir fun
ny fellow he ;-whew but | must
seek seek rest for my capis coming
off and l can hardly keep my jacket
on -whew-temperanc temperance.
But why attempt the impossible?
Why add another to the many paro-
dies of this elusive meadow song
The photograph alone shall resolve
that performance to its elements and
render us its units of sound. Not I'M
til thus secured, and his phonetic
''cylinder" then slowly revolved for
analysis, shall we learn what Robert
has so long been guarding from our
ears Dell6dtll I'LL IlleSe VOCAL iCTOUdIlCS.
But it has been reserved for an
anonymous poet to give us our rollick
ing "devil-may-ca Bob" as we all
know him-an interpreter who, pre-
senting the bird under the character
of 1.-The telltale," has infused the very
mischief of that wild and saucy
song into his page. Who that has
noted that suggestive, self-sutfused,
ecstatic Strut of the CAV Romeo as
with dropping wings and circling
pirouette he waltzes about his little
brown mate down there in the grass,
will not recognize the portrait? What
does the saucy banterer say to the
startled sparrow ''warbling his we'd
ding tune" in supposed seclusion?
balancing on Il blackberry brier,
The bobolink sung with his heart on fire:
'Chink ? If you wish to kiss her, do
DO ii. do it, you coward you!
Kiss her kiss kiss her! who will see g?