SOUTHERN AMERICAN REDSTART 671 



but certain notes are sometimes strongly accented. In 59 records, the 

 songs contain from 4 to 11 notes, averaging about 7. They occupy 

 from % to 1% seconds. 



"The song varies in pitch from G " ' to E " ". Individual songs 

 vary from no change in pitch to a change of three tones. Three of 

 my records are all on the same pitch. Four change pitch only a half 

 tone. Only one has a range of three tones. The average range is 

 just about one and a half tones. 



"Songs begin with a series of simple notes or of 2-note phrases. 

 The former sounding like tseet^ tseet^ tseet and the latter tseeta^ tseeta, 

 tseeta. Songs may end in three different ways; the first just as it 

 began, without change to the end ; the second with a single, strongly 

 accented, higher-pitched note; and the third by a downward slur, 

 strongly accented at the beginning. These two latter forms may be 

 represented as tsita^ tsita^ tsita, tseet and tsit, tsit, tsit, tsit, tseeo. 

 Of my records, 15 are of the first form, 18 of the second, and 26 of 

 the third. 



"These three different songs may all be sung by one individual and 

 there is nothing seasonal about their use. The bird frequently alter- 

 nates two or more songs, sometimes regularly, sometimes one is sung 

 three or four times as often as the other. One bird sang four different 

 songs one after another, but the order varied with each repetition. So 

 far as I know, this is the only warbler that sings different songs in 

 alternation. 



"The redstart sings from the time of its arrival until the middle of 

 July. The average date of the last song, based on 14 years of ob- 

 servation in Allegany State Park, is July 14. The earliest is July 

 2 (1927) and the latest July 25 (1937) ." 



In northern New York, A. Sidney Hyde (1939) states that no songs 

 of the redstart are heard in late July but that songs were regularly 

 heard from August 1 until September 2. Several birds were singing 

 with almost full springtime vigor at Irondequoit Bay on August 20. 



Eugene P. Bicknell (1884), in writing of the late singing of the 

 redstart, says : 



In some years I have found this species songless soon after the beginning of 

 July. In seasons when it thus early becomes silent singing is resumed in the 

 first part of August, and continues for two or three weeks. But the period of 

 July silence is inconstant, and sometimes singing is little interrupted through 

 the month. When this is the case singing seems to cease finally at the end of 

 the month or early in August, and is followed by no supplementary song period. 

 * * * My dates of last songs are limited by the third week of August, except 

 in one exceptional instance when one of the birds was heard to sing on 

 September 5. 



A number of observers have reported seeing the female sing, the 

 song being about the same in quality and length as that of the male. 



