WESTERN BIRDS Pipit 



as two hundred feet into the air, and also as it descends. 

 Townsend describes it as che-whee, che-wee, with a 

 vibratory resonance on the whee. 



Dawson says of the Washington birds: "The Pipit 

 song in many of its phrases is strikingly like that of the 

 Rock Wren. It has the same vivacity and ringing 

 quality, though perhaps less power, and the similarity 

 extends to the very phrasing. An alarm note runs 

 pichoo pichoo pichoo, given six or seven times, rapidly 

 and emphatically; while another, wee iich, wee iich, wee 

 lich, is rendered, unless my eyes deceive me, with the 

 same springing motion which characterizes the Wren. 

 An ecstasy song of courting time (heard on Mt. Rainier) 

 runs twiss twiss twiss twiss (ad lib.), uttered as rapidly 

 as the syllables may be said. It is delivered as the bird 

 describes great, slow circles in mid-air; and when the 

 singer is exhausted by his efforts, he falls like a spent 

 rocket to the ground." 



One peculiarity the bird has which can only be seen 

 when close at hand and that is the hind toe nail, which 

 is as long as, or longer than, its toe. 



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