1452 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 3 



which seemed a compound of those of the Canary and Wood-lark 

 of Europe. The habits of this sweet songster resemble those of the 

 Song Sparrow. Like it, mounted on the topmost twig of the tallest 

 shrub or tree it can find, it chants for hours." 



F. H. Allen heard the Lincoln's sparrow sing at West Roxbury, 

 Mass., on May 13, 1915, and sent the following notes to Mr. Bent: 



One singing near the house this morning. Heard it first when I got out, about 

 6.30. It was in the Norway spruces northwest of the house and kept itself 

 hidden for over half an hour, frequently singing, sometimes with a ventriloquial 

 effect sounding far away. Never having heard the song before, I did not recog- 

 nize it and I could not satisfy myself at first as to what bird it came from. When 

 I first heard it I thought of the northern water-thrush, but I soon perceived that 

 it was not that. Then I thought successively of chat, catbird, house wren, gold- 

 finch, and white- winged crossbill. It sounded most like an abbreviated and low- 

 pitched strain from a goldfinch, but the secretive habit of the bird seemed to 

 prove that it could not be that. It was about as long as the indigo bunting's 

 song, perhaps a little longer, but more varied and of different quality. At or near 

 the end there was a short, sweet bubbling or rippling trill suggestive of the house 

 wren, but high-pitched, I should say. The song had two forms, one of which, 

 the more emphatic of the two, was given more frequently than the other. There 

 were periods of silence, and during one of these I gave the bird up for the time and 

 went into the house. Then it began again and I went on the upper piazza to 

 look for it. Presently it flitted into a pear tree and sang there, and I saw it was 

 a Lincoln's sparrow. A beautiful and interesting song. 



William Brewster (1936) describes four different songs, and their 

 variations, of one Lincoln's sparrow as follows: 



1. A simple, level, woodeny trill usually indistinguishable from the summer 

 song of the Juncos, but at times with a resonant, lyrical quality approaching that 

 of the Yellow- rump's song; both forms given at short but distinct intervals. 



2. The same trills with the intervals completely filled with short, soft, liquid 

 notes, the whole forming a medley exactly like that uttered by the Junco in early 

 spring with the Junco tsup or tup coming in frequently among the short, con- 

 necting notes. This song should perhaps be regarded as a variation of No. 1, 

 but I did not once hear this bird change from one to the other. That both songs 

 were literal copies of those of the Junco can admit of no doubt. 



3. A rapid warble, at times flowing smoothly and evenly and in general effect 

 exceedingly like the song of the Purple Finch; at others brighter and more glancing, 

 the notes rolling one over another and suggesting those of the Ruby-crowned 

 Kinglet; again, with a rich, throaty quality and in form as well as tone very 

 closely like the song of the House Wren; still again guttural and somewhat broken 

 or stuttering and very suggestive of the song of the Long-billed Marsh Wren. 

 Although the first and last of these songs were very unlike, I have classified them 

 under one head because the bird often gave them all during one singing period 

 and, moreover, changed from one to another by insensible gradations. 



4. Song in slow, measured bars or cadences, separated by brief intervals, swell- 

 ing and sinking, some of the notes trilled or shaken, the whole given after the man- 

 ner of the songs of the Hermit Thrush and Bachman's Finch and almost equally 

 spiritual in quality. 



Aretas A. Saunders (1935) transliterates two songs of the Lincoln's 

 sparrow as: "06-00-00-00-06 eeyayeeyayeeyayeeseseesosee" and "ootle 



