SIMILARITIES OF VOICE 135 



to demonstrate the family resemblances existing 

 between the voices of many birds, though the species 

 inhabit different hemispheres ; and these resemblances 

 suggest a common descent from general types. 



The persistence of certain characteristic cries, 

 over a wide area, was remarkably evidenced by the 

 notes of two birds at Vancouver, B.C. One of these 

 was the black-capped chickadee (Parus atricapillus\ 

 which is apparently identical with the marsh titmouse. 

 On my using a " call," some four or five chickadees 

 came around me, and, within the distance of two 

 yards, poured out their notes, which were not dis- 

 tinguishable from the cry of the British bird, 

 represented on p. 42. The second was a wren, 

 apparently the " winter wren," in general appearance 

 exactly like the European bird, and which sang 

 practically the same song, and in the same manner, 

 as its British prototype. It also made frequent use 

 of a note identical with the coarse autumnal call-note 

 of our wren. Thus, when nearly six thousand miles 

 from Europe, half of which distance was occupied by 

 the ocean, one heard what seemed to be the notes of 

 two common British birds, though the birds of the 

 two countries must have been, during countless 

 generations, completely apart. 



If the notes of these widely-separated tits and 



