104 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG 



the male replied, and simultaneously with her leaving 

 the nest he entered it, and brooded on the eggs " (in 

 litt^}. The American robin uttered a similar but 

 shorter sound when disturbed by me near its young. 

 Dr. Butler's captured redwings had the long, high 

 distress-note of the blackbird (##.). Layard wrote 

 that the Cape chat- thrush (Cossypha Caffrd], the 

 Cape robin, sings like ours, and has similar 

 manners (pp. cit. p. 224). The common call- 

 note of the robin, often heard before the song 

 on still days in autumn, and also frequently used 

 when the young are about, is a short squeak, less 

 loud than the call of the male and female black- 

 bird to each other, but of much the same tone. In 

 autumn the young blackbirds of the year often utter 

 this cry, which is also somewhat like the call of the 

 common fly-catcher, and almost equally resembles, 

 but is louder than the common cry of the young 

 redstart. In fly-catcher and robin, at least, the sound 

 is accompanied by a flirt of the tail. The nightingale 

 utters to its young a squeak closely like the call- 

 squeak of the robin, and I have heard it employed 

 in conjunction with the alarm-croak of the bird, in 

 the same circumstances. Bechstein observed that 

 the European greater nightingale {Philomela major} 

 has call -notes like those of the common nightingale 



