WHITE-THROATED SPARROW 1385 



Finally, the white-throat gives several kinds of repetitive calls. 

 One type is the "Chu-ehatter" (Helms) or "Chup-up-up-up," a series 

 of low-pitched notes (2,000 to 3,000 cps) given by both sexes. This is 

 evidently a threat note and according to Jack P. Hailman may be 

 accompanied by a head-forward threat as when caged birds have an 

 encounter while feeding. It may be given by the male in answer to 

 the song of another male. Lowther has also heard it following the 

 "eeek" note. 



A variety of repetitive calls given by both sexes may be described 

 as trills. One type consists of a rapidly uttered series of notes similar 

 to the "tip" note already described. Another type consists of a series 

 of short notes covering a wide range of frequencies (4,000 to 8,000 

 cps). Trills are occasionally heard when birds are disturbed or in 

 agonistic encounters. Most commonly they are given by the female in 

 answer to the male's song and may induce approach and mounting by 

 the male (see Courtship). When given intensely by either sex these 

 notes may be accompanied by wing fluttering or vibrations of the tail. 



An adult caught in a mist net or held upside down may give a 

 "distress call," which is a scream of rapidly uttered notes covering a 

 wide range of frequencies sometimes including "pink" notes or snatches 

 of song. Lowther heard this call from a caged white-throat that 

 a snake had seized by the feet. Somewhat similar sounds, although 

 fainter and higher in pitch, are given by young birds if they are handled 

 after 5 or 6 days of age. Distress calls are a powerful stimulant and 

 may attract several pairs of white-throats. The birds typically dash 

 about in the vicinity and eventually settle down a short distance away, 

 uttering "pink" notes. If young birds are giving the distress calls, 

 "pink" notes from the adults tend to quiet them. Occasionally other 

 species will also react to distress calls of white-throats. 



Young birds also give other repetitive calls. Shortly after hatch- 

 ing, nestlings give "gaping notes" that consist of a faint, high-pitched 

 buzzing trill. Fledged young, when out of sight of their parents, give 

 short calls that resemble short distress calls but are of lower intensity. 



Thorneycroft (unpublished data) found that birds taken from the 

 nest and raised in sound isolation developed notes similar to those 

 already described as "tseet, pink, chup-up, and trills." 



Enemies. — Herbert Friedmann (1963) states: 



The white-throated sparrow is generally an infrequent host of the brown- 

 headed cowbird, but in southern Quebec it appears to bo a regular and not 

 uncommon victim. In the course of nearly 60 years of field observation, Terrill 

 (1001) found the astonishing number of 507 nests of this sparrow within a limited 

 area of southern Quebec; of these, 20, or 4 percent, had been parasitized by the 

 cowbird. * * * 



All in all, some 36 records have come to my notice. Apart from southern 

 Quebec, the white-throated sparrow has been found to be victimized in Itaska 

 646-737 — 68 — pt. 3 10 



