6 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



midnight when all else in nature is at rest. But as soon as the breeding season 

 commences this beautiful song ceases, and is now changed to a kind of call — 

 "Twee, twee, twee, twee, tweet," ending with a little trill. 



i ; The "kind of call" is unmistakably the simple form of song described 

 above, which was all I ever heard in the latter part of June, but in 

 Swedish Lapland two friends and correspondents whom I have quoted 

 in the "Handbook of British Birds" heard, even when most birds 

 were incubating, a few individuals singing what was clearly a form, 

 even if an inferior one, of the full song, which they describe as much 

 like that of a song thrush, but rather lower-pitched with many phrases 

 each repeated several times. 



Yet a third performance is the subsong, which can be regularly 

 heard from flocks in their winter quarters on sunny days in February 

 and March. This I have described in the "Handbook of British Birds" 

 (1938), already quoted, as "a low babbling affair of twittering and 

 warbling notes not infrequently punctuated by the fluty v trui'," and 

 "at times song not apparently differing in any material respect from 

 the simpler phase of true song may be heard from individual birds." 

 The chorus may even be varied with what sound like genuine snatches 

 of full song, but with one recent exception there is no clear record of 

 the full song ever being heard before the return to the breeding ground. 



Field marks. — The redwing is an obvious thrush, a little larger than 

 a wood thrush, with the usual spotted, or in this case more strictly 

 streaked, breast of the group, but at once distinguished from any 

 other American or European thrush by its conspicuous pale eye stripe 

 and chestnut-red flanks. The Iceland form is rather darker than the 

 typical one, and in certain of the Scottish islands, where both forms 

 occur regularly, at least two competent and experienced observers have 

 stated that the Icelanders, or at aDy rate the more strongly charac- 

 terized specimens, are recognizable even in the field by their darker 

 coloration, an opinion they have confirmed by shooting. But for 

 observers without their exceptional experience and opportunities of 

 comparison the races cannot be considered separable in the field. 



Enemies. — There is not much that can be said about enemies of the 

 redwiDg beyond the kind of general statement that can be made about 

 all the thrushes and other birds of similar size and habits. Like other 

 Turdidae it is subject to the attacks of hawks and perhaps more so 

 than some on account of its being mainly a bird of open ground. It 

 figures in the dietary of the (European) sparrow hawk, goshawk, and 

 at times of the peregrine (duck hawk), and even the little merlin 

 (pigeon hawk). The last-named must be presumed to be the chief 

 enemy of the Iceland form on its breeding ground. Roosting birds 

 are sometimes taken by owls. It is also recorded that hawks may 

 accompany the migrating flocks and take a toll of the wanderers. 



