98 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 paet i 



a gushing effervescent quality reminiscent of the flight song of the 

 goldfinch. The bird gives the song from an altitude of 75 to 100 feet, 

 fans the air rather laboriously or stiffly, and propels the body rather 

 slowly in a straight Une. Donald J. Nicholson wrote Taber about a 

 bird he watched July 3, 1953, at an altitude of about 5,000 feet in the 

 Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. "Flying from the top of 

 a 140-foot-high balsam, the bird rose some 30 feet in a huge arc, then 

 sank slowly down to the top of another balsam perhaps 700 feet dis- 

 tant. Dm"ing the flight's 25 to 30 seconds duration the bird poured 

 forth in midair a most pleasing but puzzling continuous babble of 

 music." 



Alexander Wetmore (1909) mentions hearing the flight song "on 

 several occasions" in September 1908 in Kansas. According to 

 Howell, Laskey and Tanner (1954), "In May, Mrs. Hickey heard the 

 full song of" an indigo bunting flying overhead at night. WilUam 

 Youngworth (1953) considers that there are two flight songs. The 

 first is similar to the song when perched ; the second suggests that of 

 a goldfinch. 



In regions where this species is a summer resident it is, perhaps, 

 difficult to distinguish whether a singing bird is establishing a terri- 

 tory, or is merely migrating through. Frederick V. Hebard wrote 

 Mr. Bent from southeastern Georgia where the species does not breed 

 that the birds "do not sing either in spring or fall migration as far as 

 I can tell". 



The alarm note is, according to E. H. Forbush (1929), "a sharp 

 chi'p, resembling the sound made by striking two pebbles together, 

 also a chuck." W. M. Taylor informs us that he has noted a similarity 

 between the call note of this bird and that of the myrtle warbler. 

 Aretas Saunders writes the "caU-note of this bird is a short tsick re- 

 sembling caU-notes of warblers. A young bird, just out of the nest 

 and giving the hunger call, uttered a short psink pitched on 'G.' " 



The distinctive caU note will frequently reveal the presence of a bird 

 in dense fields especially during migration. CaU notes are often heard 

 at night in the fall as they migrate overhead (Lowery, 1955). 



Enemies. — Richard S. PhiUips (1951) says, "On July 3, 1950, I saw 

 a House Wren {Troglodytes aedon) fly from nest No. 11. When I got 

 to the nest, I found the contents of the one bunting egg beginning to 

 seep from a biU hole in the shell." 



Arthur A. AUen (1933) refers to "mites." Mrs. Harold R. Peaseley 

 wrote Mr. Bent of a lazuli bunting which drove away an indigo 

 bunting. W. E. C. Todd (1940) states that the species "is frequently 

 killed * * * by cars on the roads." Dale A. Zimmerman (1954) 

 mentions four birds found dead on highways. F. M. Bennett (1909) 

 describes, as elaborated on under Migration, the effects of a thunder- 



