What is it? Someone gave it to me yesterday. It has six holes, diatonic like a pennywhistle. But it holds like a flute, with a strange little mouthpiece so you don’t have to worry about embrouchure. Big breath requirement, plays offkey if you don’t push pretty hard. No markings. Any ideas?
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/149/1139/640/Photo_070405_002.jpg
The link gives me an access denied error.
Ron
Try again. When you get to the access denied page, click the jpg link on that page.
The pic’s a little out of focus. Is that a flute type hole, or is it a flageolet?
Picture still isn’t coming through.
But is it like this one on Ebay?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10183&item=7333684017&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
This has a few more pictures and descriptions towards the end of the page. These "Melody Flutes"show up now and then on ebay, but I’ve never heard reports of what they actually sound like.
Keith
I’ve picked up a couple of these. They’re sort of squeaky. One is all beat up, dented etc. and plays okay. The other is very hard to regulate breath to get an okay tone. They seem like right angle whistles. They don’t have any flute like qualities.
Sounds like you’re describing a melody flute - basically a cheap side blown flute with a mouthpiece instead of just a hole.
ConnieS—now clicking the link on the “access denied” page doesn’t work. I did see the picture earlier and now I can’t. I have no idea what it is, just thought you might not know the second link isn’t working. It is odd looking, and doesn’t look to me like the e-bay picture at all----but I would be the last to know if they were basically similar.
picture worked for me the second time I tried it (i just tried 2 times in a row). It doesn’t look like the melody flute.
I’ve stuck the image on my website temporarily to help with the weird access issues:
Clearly not a Melody Flute like the ebay sample I posted. So what is it?
Well it’s not a fife. 
Okay, what about a tin whistle with a headpiece to make it play like an Irish flute? Or what about a native American flute? If it’s played softly, it sounds like a minor key, but it’s not pentatonic.
BTW, thanks, Wanderer, for posting the picture.
And I’m sorry if the post is off topic. I wasn’t sure, but it does play like a whistle, so I thought I should post here.
You should try over on the flute side. Post a link to this thread.
The picture is fuzzy but I’d say it’s some sort of flageolet. The "squarish
" hole looks like a fipple. I’m not sure what the hole above that would be (if it is indeed a hole, it’s kind of hard to see) unless maybe you block it for sound, unblock it for no sound, but that would imply that the air supply was something other than a mouth (i.e. some sort of bag or bellows). There is probably a chamber between the mouthpiece and the fipple, and possibly even a small sponge or baffle inside the chamber.
I vote we give it a highly scientific name like “flageolet thingamabob.” 
There’s optimism for you!
It looks like a whistle that’s had a fake embouchure headjoint attached to it, allowing it to be sideblown but without the need for developing an embouchure of one’s own. A ‘fake fife’. It could well be the wooden equivalent of one of these:
http://www.flutina.com/products.html
Here’s a closeup of the head joint.
http://216.239.54.9/img/149/1139/640/Photo_070405_003.jpg
I think it’s a vietnamese flute. I’ve seen very similar looking things in local music stores here.
Edit: I changed my mind. It looks kinda like them, aesthetically, but the ones I’ve seen are actually transverse flutes.
Looks like what the Music Makers catalogue calls a “Baroque](http://www.musikit.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MK&Category_Code=BarFlute">"Baroque) Flute”
</a](http://www.musikit.com/graphics/shoppingcart/flutes32.jpg"></a)>
I think it’s a side blown whistle from India. I have one in brass that I know is from India and I recently bought this one on eBay that is wooden, but very similar:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7327224406&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1
There’s a little wooden tube on the side that you blow into. The eBay photo shows the end plug in the wrong end.