Bird lore - Project Puffin

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Bird - Lore
melodies in bird-music, so that there are familiar landmarks by which the
beginner may proceed. It is difficult, indeed, to master all notes and songs of
even our familiar birds, but not as difficult as it would be if they were detached
and remote from any sounds to which we are accustomed in our own music,
as the rasping notes of insects, the squeaking of mice, the wild howhng of
coyotes, or crackHng and crashing of falhng timber.
It is possible that one reason why birds so readily seem akin to us at times
is on account of their musical calls and rhythmical songs. Some people find a
relationship between tones and colors, and are able to learn the tones of the
scale, for example, more readily by associating a color with each tone. Be that
as it may, we can employ our time this winter to good advantage by learning
to recognize the tones which make up the common scale of C, to understand
what is meant by the pitch of each tone, to discover why certain tones are more
resonant or colorful than others, and to train our ears to catch the rhythm of
combinations of tones. Associated tones, we find, depend much upon time for
the resulting rhythm, so we must learn to distinguish among the signs indicating
the time. A note, for example, may be pitched upon middle C. It has, we
will find, a degree of resonance depending upon the number of vibrations
which underhe it, a degree that may be compared with other notes of different
pitch and different vibration. This note on middle C may be combined with
other notes in some sort of rhythmical sequence pleasing to the ear, especially
if this sequence forms a true melody. Time, however, is one of the important
factors in the making of any rhythm or melody, so we must look again at the
note on middle C with which we started, to discover how much time it requires
for its enunciation. It may be a whole note or a half-note, a quarter, an eighth,
sixteenth, or even thirty-second or sixty-fourth. According to the time it
consumes, it will be slow or fast.
One thing which is often confusing in bird-music is the rapidity with which
many of the notes are uttered. A House Wren's song gushes forth in such an
uncontrollable hurry that the ear fails at first to distinguish one note from
another. With the White-throated Sparrow or Chickadee it is different. Their
songs are given rather deliberately and are easy to foUow and to recall.
The pitch of many bird-notes and -songs is higher than that of much of the
music with which we are most familiar, or in some cases, lower, so that we need
to make an effort to hear them readily. The low booming of Bitterns at a dis-
tance is as difficult for some people to hear as the high, wiry notes of the
Grasshopper Sparrow. By training the ear with a tuning-fork to recognize
pitch, one great obstacle in learning bird-songs will be overcome.
The matter of time-intervals between the rhythms making up a song is
almost as important as that of the length of the actual notes. It is a particu-
larly valuable training for the ear to recognize time-intervals. Compare the
songs of three of our common Vireos, the Red-eyed, Yellow-throated, and
Warbling. The Red-eyed Viroe's notes are pitched relatively high, are rapid