510 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part i 



song. During the height of courtship the one song is sometimes protracted into 

 the other and thus a rather prolonged vocal effort is produced that lacks nothing 

 in fervour and melodiousness. 



The perching song is loud and rather short. * * * j^ consists of whistled 

 notes more or less interspersed with warbled phrases. The flight song is rather 

 liquid, a passionate utterance of love by an exalted being. * * * 



The Red Crossbill's characteristic location note is a very loud rhythmically 

 whistled note 'plittplitt * * * plittplitt.' It was with this note that the male 

 announced his arrival during incubation, while the female was brooding, and after 

 the young left the nest, and the female answered with the same note. * * * Be- 

 sides this location call they had a similar but much softer note, 'whuittwhuitt * * * 

 whuittwhuitt', which was of a conversational nature and which the birds used 

 constantly as they travelled together, as they fed, as one waited while the other 

 was feeding. It was this note that the female used when she perched in the top of 

 the nesting tree and called to her young the day they left the nest. 



The alarm note was a monosyllabic whistle, very soft, 'lu * * * lu * * * lu', 

 given between rather prolonged intervals. * * * 



As mentioned, the female's food call v>^as a continuous 'tchetetetetetetetet', 

 which she uttered practically without interruption from the time the male arrived 

 to feed her until he departed again during incubation and brooding. * * * 



Francis H. Allen writes to me of a note he heard in Maine in August: 

 "A common phrase of the irregular and disjointed song was t^i-whir'ree, 

 whir^ree, with a slight pause between the two dissyllabic notes." 



Dorothy E. Snyder (1954) describes songs heard before the nest was 

 completed as pit-pit, tor-r-ree, tor-r-ree, and as whit-whit, zzzzt, zzzzt, 

 zzzzt, with the last notes low and rasping. The usual song, however, 

 during the first weeks was z-z-zt in twos, threes, or fours, all on the 

 same note. On April 16, perhaps two days before the young left the 

 nest, and on the 17th, there was a new song, whit-wheet and wheet, 

 wheet, wheet, changing pitch frequently and using doublets and triplets, 

 with single notes interspersed. The arrival of either bird in the vicin- 

 ity of the nest was always signaled by pip-pip. The female's tones 

 were lower and deeper than, and not as soft as, those of the male. 



Mrs. Louise de Kuiline Lawrence sent the following description of 

 the song flight to Taber in January 1957: "February 8, 1954, 9:10 a.m.: 

 A female Red Crossbill came and perched in the top of a tall tree. 

 The next instant a male flew out from a clump of trees in the swooping 

 undulating flight common to crossbills. Suddenly when near the 

 female he reduced his speed until he was ahnost, but not quite, sta- 

 tionary, beating his wings rapidly and giving forth a continuous, 

 twittering, very sweet song. Slowly, in the apparent ecstasy of this 

 performance, he began circling around the female. Before he had 

 quite completed the full circle around her, he once more and as sud- 

 denly resumed his fast and undulating flight. With a fine sweep he 

 reached the top of a tall balsam fir opposite the female and soon after, 

 as she took off, he immediately followed." 



