310 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In the unbroken daylight of the Arctic summer the bluethroat pours 

 out his song at all hours. During spells of genial weather in these 

 high latitudes, the night hours, with the sun still up and the strong 

 light of noon no more than gently and restfully subdued, cast a 

 strange, indefinable glamor and "other-worldliness" over the land- 

 scape, and it is at such times that the song is heard to perfection. 

 But it may be heard too under very different conditions when the 

 vagaries of a late spring in the Arctic lead the human observer to 

 take a much less romantic view of his surroundings. To his own 

 intrinsic merits as a songster the bluethroat adds that of being an 

 excellent mimic, and Seebohm and Harvie-Brown (1876) have de- 

 scribed how a whole variety of notes and calls of other species may 

 be run together "in such a way as to form a perfect medley of bird- 

 music, defying one who is not watching to say whether or not the 

 whole bird-population of that part of the forest are equally engaged 

 in the concert at the same time." The song is generally delivered 

 from a more or less exposed perch, often on a low bush or tree, but 

 not infrequently, in contrast to the bird's habit at other times, at a 

 fair height on the top of a young conifer or birch tree or, where such 

 things are found, even on telegraph wires. The song is also uttered 

 in a special display flight, which has been referred to already, and 

 Seebohm (1901) states that on first arrival it may warble in a very 

 low undertone, evidently indicating what would nowadays probably 

 be called a subsong. 



Field marks. — For a European observer unfamiliar with the species 

 one can compare the general form and build of the bluethroat to that 

 of a rather slim robin, but for ornithologists in America, to whom 

 "robin" means a quite different bird, no such ready comparison offers 

 itself. Perhaps the actual form and outline of the bird may be de- 

 scribed as rather like that of a small, long-legged bluebird, but the 

 coloration is entirely different. The upperparts are dark brown. The 

 handsome blue throat and breast are fully developed only in the adult 

 male in the breeding season, and in a sense is a better field character, 

 since it is present at all ages and in all seasons, is the rufous base to 

 the dark brown tail. This is conspicuous when the bird spreads its 

 tail or when it flies away from the observer, and in a migrant that 

 flits up among bushes or, as may happen in Europe, in a field of roots 

 or potatoes, and quickly drops into cover again, it may serve for 

 identification when little else is seen. The bright blue bib of the 

 breeding male shades into blackish below and below this again is 

 bounded by a chestnut-red band of the same color as the spot in the 

 middle of the bib. These bright colors are somewhat obscured in fall 

 by pale tips to the feathers. The female has the bib whitish, defined 



