Evening star., 1944-04-03

"Dear Sir:
How can birds song be recognized?
An Illustrated manual. descriptive meas
urements, other comparisons and asso-
Citations serve well TO Identity the birds
physical aspect.
'Ts there textbook on bird calls? It
seems-to one who never before noticed
birds-that there are so many birds
singing and calling around here now.
At any rate, there is q great variety Of
notes and cadences coming from q very
flusive source, for can never find the
bird no matter how crane my neck.
Yours very truly, w. K. K"
The subject of bird song is an inter-
esting one for all persons with music in
their hearts.
Many books have attempted to tell
people how to recognize the songs.
One of these is "a Guide to Bird
Song" by Aretas A. Saunders, published
by Appleton Century
Another is F. Schuyler Mathews
Field Book Of Wild Birds and Their
Music" published by Putnam's.
Neither of these books, in our opinion,
will be of much help to beginner. The
Saunders guide uses system of short
hand, as it might be called, without the
use of musical notation. Unless you
know your bird, in advance, you will
have great difficulty in putting the right
song to the right bird.
DR.. Mathews famous book gives so
many hundreds of musical examples
that unless one knows both his music
and his birds, beforehand, he will have
great difficulty in finding the bird he
seeks.
Experts have charted more than 1000
variations of the song sparroWs song,
alone; think of what this means, when
one hears simple little melody coming
from some shrub!
If you are acquainted with the song
sparrow, and some of his variations,
you can be pretty sure, on hearing a
new one, that you are listening to your
small friend
But what about the pretty whistles Of
the starting? Many persons hear this
bird, and attribute the calls to almost
any other species. They are loath, it
would seem, in view of the smear"
campaign against this bird, to give him
credit for some neat singing.
The mockingbird can do creditable
job, as every one knows, in initiating
almost any other songster. Often his
songs are mistaken for the real thing.
X
1t is here much as with bridge. 1t Is
more or less useless to buy a bridge
book, thinking therefrom to learn to play
the game.
Experts will tell you that it is essential
first to learn the game, and play it for
some time, before using a book.
Books on pruning in the garden are
much the same way. They are pure
Greek to a newcomer until he has done
some pruning on his own hook in the
yard. After few years he may be able
to read the book with profit
We question whether any one ever
learned how to play chess by starting off
with books of games by THE masters.
The way to learn is to play it, just as
the way to learn to write is to write.
The best way to learn the bird songs
is to listen to them, and then to identify
the birds which make them. In this
way the songs are put with the right
birds
In addition to diagram representa-
tions of bird SONGS, Mr. Saunders book
contains a key to bird song" but our
opinion is that any one would go crazy
trying to use it
1t is good plan, in the spring, to
suspect that clear f1ute-like calls are
being made by festive startling and his
friends, gathered in some nearby tree
This is especially likely to be true in the
city limits
The best way of all to learn bird songs
is to learn them from some one who is
thoroughly familiar with them, and who
can whistle them, and who can tell you
what bird Is that" upon demand For
tunate, indeed, is the student who has
access to such a teacher,