34 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



bird by some peculiarity in his song, we shall find that it is always 

 the same bird that comes to the perch and that he often returns to it 

 to sing during the day. 



Aretas A. Saunders (MS.) sends this analysis of the robins' song to 

 Mr. Bent: "The song of the robin is long-continued; made up of 

 phrases with short pauses between them. These phrases are repeated, 

 alternated, or otherwise arranged in groups of two to five, with longer 

 pauses between the groups. Each phrase is composed of one to four 

 notes, but most commonly two or three. The notes are frequently 

 joined by liquid consonant sounds like r or 1. T have records of 

 portions of the songs of 49 different robins: in these the pitch varies 

 from A" to B'" ', one tone more than an octave. My records 

 are fairly complete for 24 of these birds, and in these the average 

 variation in pitch is about three tones, the least two tones, and the 

 greatest five and a half. The time of the song is regularly rhyth- 

 mical, the phrases and pauses being of even length. Ordinarily the 

 robin sings at a rate of two phrases per second. In the very early 

 morning they often sing faster and more continuously, the phrases 

 not being broken up into groups. Then the rate is about two and a 

 half phrases per second. Individual robins differ from each other in 

 the phrases they use and the order in which they sing them. While 

 many of the phrases are common to robins in general, nearly every 

 individual will have some peculiar phrase. The average number of 

 phrases used by one individual is about 10, but there is great varia- 

 tion: one bird I listened to for some time had apparently only 2; 

 another had but 3, while a third unusual bird had 26. Two- and 

 three-note phrases are the rule, but a single note used as a phrase is 

 not uncommon. Only twice have I heard a phrase of four notes." 



Hervey Brackbill (MS.) writes: "The robin frequently sings on the 

 ground, sometimes for minutes at a stretch while standing at one 

 place, sometimes intermittently between hops or runs in its foraging. 

 I have also noticed a robin singing while on the wing; one sang a 

 three-note phrase during a fifty-foot flight from one tree to another 

 in the early morning." 



The robin is apparently the first New England bird to awake in 

 the morning. A few males begin to sing in darkness, at the earliest 

 dim sign of approaching dawn; soon, as the light strengthens, more 

 and more birds awake and join the singing until, gaining in volume, 

 the song swells into a general chorus which lasts all through the 

 morning twilight. I remember that William Brewster was much 

 impressed by the element of drama in the great wave of robins' song 

 which sweeps overhead every morning during the breeding season in 

 the darkness before daylight, and continues on, westward, keeping 



