RING-OUZEL AS A SONGSTER 137 



beautiful. I was also much interested in the various 

 cries and sounds they emitted when excited by my 

 presence. The male would flit and fly about at a 

 distance, uttering loud clacking or chacking cries 

 interspersed with a variety of little exclamatory 

 notes, while the female, more anxious, would dash 

 at me, chacking and screaming all the time. But the 

 instant I left the site their rage would vanish; the 

 male would begin his set "wheero-wheero" whistle, 

 while the female would break out in a sort of song of 

 her own which resembled the first attempts at singing 

 of a young throstle — a medley composed of a variety 

 of guttural and squeaking notes interspersed with 

 more or less musical chirps. 



What struck me as most curious was that when 

 troubled with my presence at the nest they uttered 

 two distinct sounds which are not in the blackbird's 

 language but are part of the language of the typical 

 thrushes (Turdus) ; one was the prolonged, tremulous, 

 harsh and guttural alarm cry of the missel-thrush, 

 the other the low, long-drawn, wailing note of the 

 throstle when anxious about its nest or young, a 

 note so high-pitched as to be inaudible to some 

 persons. It can only be supposed that these different 

 sounds, expressing apprehension or anger, have been 

 inherited by thrushes and the ring-ouzel, and have 

 been lost in the blackbird. I have been told that 

 the blackbird does occasionally emit the low robin- 

 like wailing note when its nest is approached, but 

 have never heard it myself. 



One would like to listen to and compare the sounds 



