46 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part i 



In the height of the mating season, the male sings a much more 

 prolonged song in flight when pm-suing a female. Often two males, 

 both singing, pursue the same female, and on one occasion I observed 

 three. This pursuit flight song sounds much like the regular song, 

 except that the phrases are more rapid and the pauses between them 

 shorter. Saunders continues: 



"I have never found songs of two different individuals that were 

 just alike. Each individual has several different songs, but each 

 bird is inclined to begin each song in the same way, the first three or 

 four phrases being identical, but the endings of the songs quite variable. 



"The season of song lasts from the first arrival of birds in the spring 

 to about the middle of July. Occasionally one may hear a grosbeak 

 sing in late August or September, but whenever I have done so and seen 

 the bird that was singing, it proved to be an immature male. 



"The common call-note is a high-pitched, short, and squeaky kink. 

 Young birds, shortly after they leave the nest, are quite noisy and 

 use a variety of notes, most of which are squeaky, but one is an up- 

 wards slurred tyoooeee, as soft and sweet as the call of a bluebird. 

 When a young bird is lost and becomes hungry, its call is a downward- 

 slurred wheeay." 



Francis H. Allen writes to me of one of these gi'osbeaks "who 

 frequently introduced into his song three long, ascending whistles, 

 reminding me of the weei-weet-weet of the spotted sandpiper, though 

 they had much more of a rising inflection. He also introduced a 

 short chuee, repeated rapidly about four times, and a short, low trill 

 suggestive of the wood thrush. These unusual notes were generally 

 at the end of the song. Once I heard him give, after the character- 

 istic warbles of the species, first the three long whistles, then the trill, 

 then the chuee, chuee, chuee, chuee, then a sweet falling whistle with 

 diminuendo. 



"On May 28, 1947, a bird preluded his regular song with a faint and 

 short ti-ti-sweet and then a louder, husky trill, wi-wi-wi-wi-wi, after 

 which the song continued in normal fashion." 



The male often sings while on the nest and sometimes at night. 

 The female occasionally sings a softer and shorter song than that of 

 the male, but similar to it. H. Koy Ivor writes Taber that the female 

 of a pair in semicaptivity sang on the nest, and "that the male uttered 

 a courtship song in a remarkably low, sweet voice. One has to be very 

 close to hear all the notes of this love song." 



Charlotte E. Smith sent Austin the following observations: "In 

 addition to the common metallic 'click' call-note, which is rather 

 soft but distinct, I have heard an alarm note which, although very 

 similar, is noticeably different because it is louder and much sharper, 

 with the quality (to my ears) of the call of the hairy woodpecker. 



