WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL 539 



fairly good singer appeared to be rather immature, being mostly gray with but a 

 faint tinge of red in the breast. This full nuptial song is certainly very different 

 from the song occasionally heard at other seasons, and would hardly be recognized 

 by one who had heard the latter only. 



Olive Thome Miller (1904) mentions "long bewitching tremolos, 

 varied by rapturous 'sweet! sweet!' and now and then a slurred 

 couplet of thrilling effect, or a long-drawn single note of rich musical 

 quality, or again a rapid succession of sharp staccato notes." 



Most of the species with which comparison is made are eastern 

 forms. H. S. Swarth (1922), however, states that the "song-flight 

 especially is suggestive of a similar spring performance of the house 

 finch." Joseph Grinnell (1900a) says: "The bright red adult males 

 seem to have a special note of their own, a sharp metallic 'cheet', to 

 me remarkably like the spring call-note of the Arizona Hooded Oriole 

 in Southern California, This note is often repeated during a flight of 

 the crossbills, and is distinctly recognizable among the medley of 

 ordinary notes." The ordinary call-notes of the species, he says, 

 resemble those of redpolls, but are sharper and more harsh, with 

 several uttered together in rapid succession. 



E. M. S. Dale (1924) describes the song as beginning "with a trill on 

 one key, changing to one a little lower in pitch, then to one higher. 

 These three trills were followed by a series of chirps and throaty 

 notes * * *. The song continue with chirps, trills and warbles * * *." 



Mrs. Louise de Kiriline Lawrence wrote Mr. Bent of her observations 

 on Jan. 2, 1948, near Rutherglen, Ontario, commenting that during 

 courtship a female was "giving a melodious twitter that almost seemed 

 like a song." She says, further, that an alarm note was a "'tchet, 

 tchet, tchet,' a little rough, a little hoarse or burry, and reminding me 

 somewhat of the hermit thrush's 'chuck-note', or the pine siskin's 

 'burry' note, though more distinct and loud. There is also another 

 note, which seemed to be given as a warning of something unusual 

 going on. It is a rather long, liquid 'trrrrrrr', to use Thoreau's simile 

 of a 'beady' note, a row of rather large beads strung together. This 

 note I heard the least often and almost always before I myself could 

 spot the bird giving it, who apparently had already spotted me." 

 The song she describes as being similar to that of the red crossbill 

 but "neither as melodious not as varied. It sounded to me something 

 like this: 'tTTT-tweet-tweet-tweet-tTrr-tchet-tchet-tweet-tweet-iweet-tTTTTT- 

 tweet-tweel,' with emphasis on all 'tweets' which often were longdrawn, 

 rising in pitch, and given with great feeling, as it were." 



A. Brooker Klugh (1926) states: "The song has considerable carry- 

 ing-power, as it can be heard at a distance of about seven hundred 

 yards." VPTiile this seems a surprisingly long distance, my own 



