The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-06-28
IDENTIFYING SONGBIRDs.
The PhrasooIogy of TheIr Melody a
Food Glove.


(From the Railroad Press.
When the bird choir Is in full song, as
1t is during Mpy and June, it is interest
ing and often perplexing to seek to
unravel the different phrases of melody.
and distinguish them one from another.
The beginner in bird study will find this
more difficult task than he imagines.
He will be embarrassed both by the con-
fusion of tongues, the veritable babel of
songs, and by the fact that there are such
slight shades of difference between the
songs of several birds of allied species
The songs of the various sparrows, for in
stance, are much alike in general charac-
tor, and it takes an ear trained to detail
to tell which Is which. Add to thess
more general causes Of confusion the fact
that different individuals Of the same
bird family pften have slight idiosyncra-
sizes and variations of songs, and the diff
Guilty OF identifying our multitudinous
summer songsters iy their notes becomes
trebled.
In my own endeayors to name birds
from their songs ! have derived much
help from the somewhat whimsical trans
la ton that have reen made by natural
lists of various pird ongs into their cor
responding Engli sh phrases. For in
stance, after reading Mr.. Burroughs
charming description of the oven bird or
golden -oro wned thrush and its song,
have never had the least difficulty in
naming it from that swestly intense
cresendo cry IN the summer woods of
Teacher, teacher. teachsrl" as II the
bird were appealing with childish persis-
tenos TO some prim, unheeding precep-
tress of feathered school
A boy once asked me: what Is that
bird that sings SO much in the summer,
and goes "kickeiy -rickety -riCkety's' ]
identified the songster at once by the
boy literal rendering of its phrase as the
Maryland yellow-throat, and have never
since been unable to translate its song
into any other English equivalent. So II
you would chance to catch this summer a
rapid proclamation Of -jointedness
In bird language. you may jot down in
your notebook that you have heard a
Maryland yellow-rhroat.
The other morning / woke up at dawn
and heard a robins early carol. The
song presently adjusted itself in my
drowsy brain to an amusing but very ex-
pressive and exactly initiative English
Jingle, as follows:
Amelia Chow. Chow,
Amelia Chow Chow,
Pretty Amelia,
Pretty Amelia,
Pretty Amelia Chow-Chowi
Now aud then the bird varied its song
by reversing the order of phrases. Ii
would cry. with sweet, ringing reson-
Gnce. "Chow-chow u Then there would
be pause, followed by "Amelia," or
Pretty Amelia" But the song was
always some combination Of the phrases
I have named.
l have often tried to make English of
the impassioned, choking melody of the
hobolink, whoss flute sesms overfull of
music. so that the notes trip over each
others heels as they rush out. But there
rs often such chorus of these gregari-
GUS and sociable birds that the Individual
notes are quite lost track of, and you can
hear nothing but a rich potpourri of
sound. like disorderly. assem- blage of
cUntraltos.
The Baltimore oriole has fine, cisar
note, but his song is Of little variety. Ho
sits in an elm tree, near his pendent nest,
where the hidden female broods her eggs
and repea Is, "Chuckie, chuokie, CHUCK.
10, !" all the beautiful June day. One
wishes those exquisite notes could be uro-
longed into a song of greater extent. Yet
even In their persistent monotony they
add an inexpressible charm TO the soft,
fragrant air and blue skies of early sum-
mer.
Our night singer, the whippoorwill
repeats phrase which no one can mis-
take. / 40 not see how any one could Inn
aqine other syllables for 1t than those
which have given the bird It's name. Yet
there are certain elided or obscured sylla-
bles in the song that are distinguisbahle
only when the biri is singing near at
hand--rough brsathings, as it were, which
l ind. many students OF bird language
have never heard at all. While camping
in the woods ! have often heard the whip
poorwiL break into song within a few
yards Of my lean-to. and have marked
without difficulty the grace notes in its
song. In its completeness rhe whippoor-
poor-wiIi (ah)." The whip" and "will''
and after each of them the bird seems
audibIy to catch tits breath in q quick,
aspiraut .'ah.'' The effect, TO one who
has never heard it before, Is very peculiar
and interesting.
The white-throated sparrow gets its
common name (peabody bird) from it's
plain reiteration of the syllables "pea-
body. There are also two slight initial
syllables in the strain, which one writer
on birds likens TO '.ee-ee," giving In all
i've syllables TO the song or phrase. Tbs
beginner will have little trouble in nam
Ing this sparrow from its note.
The first nota OF the hluehird's song COR
responds to the first syllable of it's name,
q clear, smooth. open whistle, like
"bl-o-o-o." The there are two shorter
syllables, like tally" The song is of
singularly sweet quality. but meaaer.
Indeed, many Of the birds which are &C
counted our favorite songsters have really
very slight songs. 1t is the quality rath-
er than the quantity of their vocal per-
xermahce that gives them pre-eininence.