12 U.S. NATIONAL ]MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part i 



morning, the bird gave a steady succession of the chyou notes that 

 have the qiiahty of a taut wire sharply struck. It was still singing 

 when it alighted in a tree, and continued singing there for some 

 seconds." 



Witmer Stone (1937) gives us the following account of the voice 

 of the cardinal: "The Cardinal has quite a repertoire but all of his 

 vocal efforts come under the head of whistles rather than songs. 

 There is the loud emphatic call — which I have recorded as whoit, 

 whoit, whoit, often followed directly by the longer drawn out cheer, 

 cheer, cheer, and sometimes a bird utters quite a different call cheedle, 

 cheedle, cheedle, cheedle. On one occasion a bird called rapidly and 

 continuously whit, whit, whit, whit, whit, etc., like the Flicker's rapid 

 call, while another had a very low modification of the cheer call — 

 pheu, pheu, phey." 



Aretas A. Saunders writes me that "The song of the cardinal is 

 one of the most distinctive and pleasing of American bird songs. The 

 notes are delivered in a loud, somewhat reedy whistle. Certain notes, 

 slurs, or phrases are usually repeated rhythmically, and rather rapidly. 

 In many songs a particular slur or phrase is repeated throughout the 

 song. In other songs there are two distinct parts, the bird changing 

 abruptly, somewhere in the middle of the song, from one kind of slur 

 or phrase to another. 



"The pitch of the songs varies from G'' to C"", three and a half 

 tones more than an octave. The pitch of the repeated phrase may 

 not change or may become lower near the end of the song, very rarely 

 higher. This repeated phrase may be a slur, teeyo or toowee, or a 

 single note and slur, as wheeteeyo or whitowee. The slur may be up or 

 down, or both, or absent. Songs vary in length from 1.8 seconds to 4.2 

 seconds, usually even in time, occasionally wdth marked acceleration 

 toward the end, but never slower. The song is loud, with great carry- 

 ing power. There may be a marked increase in loudness toward the 

 end, but never a decrease. 



"Consonant sounds, both explosive and liquid, are prominent, and 

 include phrases such as whitcheeah or toolit or tayo, or to to to to to. 

 The individual bird has many songs, all the way up to seven." 



In his unpublished manuscript Saunders emphasizes the variable 

 length and number of notes. In his 98 records the number of notes 

 varies from 4 to 43, with the average about 16. Songs vary in length 

 from 1 to 5% seconds, averaging about 2% seconds. In this manuscript 

 he states that the pitch varies from D5 to C7. 



Albert R. Brand (1938), in his studies of the vibration frequencies of 

 passerine bird song, found that the pitch of the cardinal's whistled 

 notes "averages lower than one would presiune." Its average is 2800 

 vibrations per second, "a shade above the highest F of the keyboard"; 



