EASTERN FOX SPARROW 1407 



season or reducing it at the end note by note to its melodic skeleton. The song 

 has certain fundamental characteristics which never change. First, the quality 

 of tone is always round and full, like the sound of a clear flute-note. It is not 

 rendered ambiguous by what Mr. Schuyler Matthews calls "blurred tones," on 

 the other hand it is not enriched by those overtones, which make the notes of 

 the Wood Thrush so ethereal. It is decidedly human without touch of heavenly 

 rapture, just a clear full tone, which is precisely the best medium for a message 

 of joy and the most invigorating imaginable. 



Townsend and Allen (1907) give the following version of the 

 species' songs and calls in Labrador: 



The song seemed richer and fuller than the best song given by this species 

 during the spring migration in Massachusetts. Its clear flute-like notes are 

 somewhat ventriloquial in character, and as the bird sings generally from a con- 

 cealed perch inside of a spruce or fir tree a foot or two from the top, it is often 

 difficult to find the performer. We have written down the song very inade- 

 quately in words thus: cher-ee, hear-her, hear-her, tellit. Or lo-whip, to-whee, 

 oh-wh.ee buzz tellit, the last note short and faint and the main stress on the second 

 and third bars. 



The long drawn call note stssp so commonly heard in Massachusetts during 

 the migrations, was rarely heard in Labrador. A sharp chip chip was occasion- 

 ally emitted, and the bird when disturbed sometimes gave the usual alarm note, 

 a loud s?nack, richer than that of the Juneo and more like that of the Brown 

 Thrasher. One individual who was smacking in a fir tree emitted faint sneezy 

 notes with motions of swallowing between the smacks. 



As with most birds, time of day has a bearing on the quality of 

 the song. During spring migration the fox sparrow is always in 

 better voice towards evening. I sometimes hear the low-voiced 

 "whisper" song from the shelter of the thick brush at midday, and 

 from the same quarter towards sundown almost the full-throated 

 nuptial song. The undertones of the whisper song are easily recog- 

 nizable, vastly different from the whisper songs of the catbird and 

 song sparrow, and with a plaintive quality reminiscent of the songs 

 of the white-crowned and vesper sparrows. 



Occasionally there are short periods of song-revival in the autumn 

 after the postnuptial molt. Aretas A. Saunders (1948b) writes of the 

 fox sparrow in southern Connecticut: "I have records of fall singing in 

 this species for ten years, but usually only on one or two days in each 

 year; and of intervening years in which the bird was often common 

 but no song was to be heard." His earliest record was October 30, 

 the latest November 23, and the average about November 13. 



The two types of call mentioned by Robert T. Moore (above) are 

 quite distinct. The first, a loud "tchek," suggests a little the alarm 

 notes of the junco, but more nearly perhaps the loud "tchack" of the 

 brown thrasher. Commonly used to express distress or alarm, it is 

 heard when the bird is disturbed near the nest. It may also be heard 

 in migration when the birds are disturbed in dense cover, and may be 



