206 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Elsewhere, he writes it : '■''Pretty^ pretty Racheiy The latter version 

 seems to suggest the rhythmic swing of the song very well. 



Francis H. Allen (MS.) gives me several somewhat similar ren- 

 derings, and mentions a migrating bird that sang for a long time 

 early one morning in the spruces and hemlock near his house: "It 

 was such steady and unintermittent singing as I have seldom if ever 

 heard from any other warbler, and the bird alternated very regularly 

 between the first and second songs — weetle weetle loeetle weet^ then 

 wiW you wee sip, or wilV you will' you wee sip, the latter song not 

 so emphatic as usual and weaker than the other." This alternation 

 is not uncommon with some species of warblers, as the redstart, but 

 I have no records of it for the magnolia. He also mentions a common 

 call note, "a dry 2-syllabled note, tizic, a little suggestive, perhaps, of 

 the song of the yellow-bellied flycatcher", which he thinks has no 

 counterpart among our warbler notes. 



Aretas A. Saunders has lately sent me a full account of the song 

 of this warbler, saying, in part : "The song of the magnolia warbler 

 is a short one, commonly of six or seven notes, of a weak, rather color- 

 less, but musical quality. My 49 records of this song show that the 

 number of notes varies from 4 to 9, all but 8 of them being of either 

 6 or 7 notes. The 6-note songs usually consist of three, 2-note phrases. 

 The first two are just alike, the 2 notes of each phrase on different 

 pitches. The third phrase is either higher or lower in pitch, and 

 frequently with the order of pitch from low to high or from high 

 to low reversed. 



"The majority of the songs have a range, in pitch, of two or two and 

 a half tones, nearly always between K' ' ' and T) ' ' ' '. A few songs 

 range as much as three and a half tones, and may be as low as F ' ' ' 

 or up to E flat ' ' ' ' , but the range for the species is only five tones. 



"The songs are quite short, ranging from % second to 1% seconds. 

 Individual birds often sing two or three different songs, or vary 

 songs by dropping or adding notes. 



"The song period extends from the arrival of the bird in migration 

 to late July or early August. The average date of the last song in 

 14 years in Allegany Park is August 1. The earliest is July 26, 1933, 

 and the latest August 15, 1937." 



Enemies. — ^Dr, Friedmann (1929) mentions only a few cases in 

 which the magnolia warbler has been imposed upon by the cow- 

 bird, but E. H. Eaton (1914) , says that the cowbird "seems to make a 

 specialty of presenting this Warbler with one or more of its eggs, 

 generally puncturing the eggs of the Magnolia before leaving the 

 nest." However, it is probable that this warbler is a rather un- 

 common victim, perhaps because the cowbird is not particularly com- 

 mon in the places where the warbler breeds. 



