Soxes AXD Call Notes. 203 



Alarm notes are not, however, always believed 

 in l»y the birds to Avhich they are addressed, if 

 they cannot see or hear something in the nature 

 of corroborative evidence themselves, as I proved 

 to my complete satisfaction on two occasions last 

 summer. 



I watched a male Redstart drop into a bank 

 several times with food for his mate sitting on a 

 nest in a hole in the rock, and at once determined 

 to have a photograph of him. Waiting until tlie 

 chicks had made their appearance and both [)arent 

 birds were hard at work attending to their wants, 

 I stuck a bit of stick in the ground at the foot 

 of the bank and a little to the left of the nest 

 for them to aliglit upon and have their portraits 

 taken without being mixe<l up with tlie grass. 

 They seemed grateful for the jhtcIi and used it 

 constantly. }\v-and-by an artiticial rubbish heap 

 covered with twigs, grass, and coltsfoot leaves made 

 its appearanee a 3'ard or two behind the stick. The 

 birds used some rather bad language about the 

 unsightliness of such an erection in the middle of a 

 beautiful green field, but in a day or two got used 

 to it, and went about the business of their lives 

 without further comment or protest. One tine morn- 

 ing I tried to slip inside the contrivance whilst they 

 were away searching for food, but the female was 

 too cpiick for me. She saw me disappear, and gave 

 out her alarm note very freely indeed from the 

 branches of a tree close by. By-and-by along came 



