Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!rutgers!mtunx!whuts!picuxa!gp
From: gp@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Field guide to bird songs wanted
Message-ID: <596@picuxa.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jun 88 14:00:18 GMT
References: <8140005@hpfcdc.HP.COM>
Reply-To: gp@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190)
Organization: AT&T/EDS Product Integration Center
Lines: 23

In article <8140005@hpfcdc.HP.COM> jim@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Jim Tear) writes:
>Is there a good field guide to bird songs and calls that gives useful
>mnemonics for every species like "potato chip", "who cooks for you",
>"drink your tea"?  If there isn't such a book or recording, could we
>make one right here?
>
>	Jim Tear  --  Hewlett-Packard  --  Ft. Collins, CO

Some of th standard song descriptions in field guides give the mnemonics.
However, I think one reason that a Field Guide to the Mnemonics would not
work out, is that most birds do NOT have songs that are easily put into words.
Even the ones that do are heard differently by different people.  For instance,
by "potato chip", I assume you mean the Common Goldfinch. I hear "per-chick-o-
ree".  Also, many mnemonics can be assigned to many species with very little
stretch of the imagination.  By example, someone told me the other day that
a white-eyed vireo says "hic three beers".  If someone asked me what that song
was supposed to be, I would say an olive-sided flycatcher.  However, with 
a little imagination,  I really DID hear it say "hic three beers".
-- 
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Greg Pasquariello                   AT&T Product Integration Center
ihnp4!picuxa!gp                 299 Jefferson Rd, Parsippany, NJ 07054
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