72 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



season, but one not heard except at that time, is the queer beert or "nighthawk" 

 note. It may be given as an alarm when the birds are greatly excited, or it may 

 be given during sexual displays and competitions. It is uttered by both sexes. 



Aretas A. Saunders (MS.) has written a very excellent analysis 

 of the song and notes of the meadovvlark: "The song of the Eastern 

 meadowlark is a short series of sweet, clear, very high pitched whistled 

 notes. It is loud, carries a long distance, and, when one is near the 

 bird, is rather shrill. The notes are few, compared to those of other 

 birds, and downward slurs from a high to a lower note are frequent. 

 In spite of the few notes, it is exceedingly variable. 



"In pitch and time the song is remarkably like human music. The 

 notes are usually on the same eight notes of the octave as in the simpler 

 kinds of human music. The shorter notes are commonly half or a 

 third the length of the longer notes, so that the songs could be recorded 

 on the musical scale, as human music is written, with considerable 

 accuracy. The different songs are easily and quickly recorded by 

 the graphic method. My earliest experiments in recording bird songs 

 were with the meadowlark, and although many of the records have 

 proved to be duplicates, I have at the present time more than a thou- 

 sand different songs of this species on record. The following data 

 are based on a study of 962 of these records that I have filed and 

 catalogued, the remaining records being still only in my field note 

 books. 



"These records show that the songs vary from 2 to 8 notes each, 

 the great majority 3 to 6 notes. There are 4 songs of 2 notes; 65 of 

 3 notes; 352 of 4 notes; 391 of 5 notes; 132 of 6 notes; 15 of 7 notes 

 and 3 or 8 notes. In spite of the great variation, many records prove 

 to be duplicates, and it is a common experience to hear two or three 

 birds singing the same song, one after the other, and also common to 

 record songs from widely separated localities that are exact duplicates. 

 While the majority of my records are from southwestern Connecticut, 

 I have a good many from various localities in New York, and scatter- 

 ing records from other States. Songs that are common in Connecticut 

 are often equally common in southwestern New York, approximately 

 400 miles distant. I have also recorded duplicates of Connecticut 

 songs from the vicinity of Dover, Del. 



"The pitch of songs varies from C" to D#"", a range of \){ tones 

 more than an octave, the highest notes being a little higher than the 

 highest on the piano. The range of individual songs varies from 1 

 tone to an octave; 12 songs have a range of only 1 tone, and only one 

 has a range of an octave. Nearly half of the records, 446, have a 

 range of 2% tones, and the average of pitch of all of them is 2.7 tones. 



"The duration of meadowlark songs varies from about % second to 

 nearly^ seconds, averaging about 1% seconds. It is difficult to meas- 



