NORTHERN BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER 301 



like chatter that was pitched on B", but the remaining song was 

 normal in pitch. Single songs average about one and a half tones in 

 range, but the majority of the songs of the first type range two tones, 

 and those of the second type two and a half tones. 



"The song is to be heard from the first arrival of the species in 

 migration until shortly after the first of August. In 14 seasons 

 the average date of late song in Allegany State Park is August 2, 

 the earliest is July 25, 1927, and the latest August 11, 1935 and 1937. 

 While there is no regular revival of full song after the molt, there is 

 occasional singing of a primitive character." 



C. Eussell Mason tells me of a song in which the high, musical 

 note was given six times instead of the usual once. Francis H. Allen 

 has heard some variations in the songs and has sent me these notes : 

 "One bird added at the end of the familiar zee zee zee zoo zee a coda 

 of an intricate and wrenlike quality, and sang this beautiful song 

 constantly. Another introduced a trill after the second note of the 

 'trees, trees' song and ended it with a low note. Another bird sang 

 a variant of the 'trees, trees' song, in which it substituted for the final 

 high note a lower-pitched su-eet su-eet without the familiar z quality." 

 He and Dr. W. M. Tyler heard one that "sang in addition to one of 

 the characteristic songs of the species an entirely unrecognizable one 

 that went something like ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-zp. The first five notes were 

 very thin and slight with a very short pause before the last one, 

 and the final note was a short emphatic buzz. Once this song ran 

 into a characteristic song without a pause between." He refers to 

 the ordinary call-note as a distinctive chet^ suggesting that of the 

 myrtle warbler, but thinner. "On the occasion in early June, I heard 

 from a male bird a succession of chippering notes which I had for- 

 merly attributed to the young alone. He alternated these notes with 

 singing." 



Many other somewhat similar renderings have appeared in print, 

 both in syllables and in human words, most of which seem to recall 

 the song to mind. Some of the best of the wordings are trees^ trees, 

 murmuring trees and sleep, sleep, pretty one, sleep (Torrey, 1885) ; 

 good Saint Theresa (Maynard, 1896) ; and take it, take it, leisure-ly 

 (Stanwood, 1910b). Miss Stanwood pays this tribute to the charm 

 of the song: "His voice is suggestive of the drowsy summer days, 

 the languor of the breeze dreamily swaying the pines, spruces, firs, 

 and hemlocks. It recalls the incense of evergreens, the fragrance 

 of the wild strawberry, the delicate perfume of the linnea. No other 

 bird voice is so potent to evoke that particular spell of the northern 

 woods." 



The black-throated green warbler is a most persistent singer. The 

 Nices (1932) say that the first warbler "gave 466 songs in a single 



