KENNICOTT'S WILLOW- WARBLER 337 



or a little later. Though in general so simple a song gives little scope 

 for variation I have heard one variant in quicker time which was 

 rather distinct. 



Dixon (1938) states that the song of Kennicott's warbler "might 

 well be described as intermediate between that of the orange-crowned 

 and northern pileolated warblers." The writer is not acquainted 

 with either of these, but judging from descriptions this would seem to 

 suggest some little advance on the extreme simplicity and uniformity 

 of the song of the species in Europe. 



The tzick note is also used on the breeding ground separately from 

 the song as a call or possibly rather as an alarm or scold. It is no doubt 

 the note rendered by Dixon as a harsh chit. What is undoubtedly 

 the same note is described by La Touche (1926) as commonly uttered 

 by passage birds in China in spring, although the song is never heard 

 from these migrants. A note of migrants described as a repeated 

 husky tswee-ep is evidently different, and I have heard a note that 

 could be so rendered on the breeding ground. Another quite distinct 

 note which I have heard in the breeding season is a low rattle or churr, 

 and during what appeared to be a courtship chase I have heard from 

 one or both birds a kind of loud sit-sit-sit-sit . . ., something like the 

 notes of the song repeated in a more staccato fashion, less sibilantly 

 and with more emphasis. 



Hamilton M. Laing (1925) writes: 



For some days after our arrival at Petropavlovsk, an elusive song of good 

 quality was heard in the birch woods, but the author could not be seen. When a 

 breeze was blowing, the twinkling leaves of these trees made it most difficult to 

 catch sight of birds aloft in the upper branches. On July 27, an effort was made 

 to learn the identity of the puzzling song heard in the woods since arrival. The 

 assumption that it was wagtail was quite wrong. It came from the treetops, and 

 finally the bird was seen in song, even to the beak open in delivery, and then it 

 was shot. It proved the same small warbler-like chap resembling our Tennessee 

 Warbler, taken July 21. The song is suggestive of several others. It suggests 

 the Northern Water-Thrush, the Oven-bird at times, and even the California 

 Purple Finch. It might be fairly syllabized as 'Reecher! Reecher! Reecher! 

 Reecher!' — quite ringing and melodious. 



Collett (1886) gives the following account of the song: 



Whilst the females are sitting, the males have each their singing-place, which 

 they hardly ever leave. It was on a little hill within the woods covered with 

 larger birch and a few pine trees which towered above the others. Here the male 

 would sit, in the top of the loftiest trees, and sing almost incessantly the whole 

 day; it stopped only for a few moments, when it generally entirely disappeared, 

 and sometimes it could then be seen to meet the female. Some minutes after it 

 would perch again on the top of its tree, as a rule on the same branch, and recom- 

 mence its song again. * * * 



The indefatigable manner in which the male gives forth its monotonous, but 

 nevertheless strongly sounding, song is almost incredible. The song consists, as 

 I have previously remarked, of a single note, zi-zi-zi-zi . . ., repeated 



