966 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 paet 2 



ethereal quality. Some writers have even become sentimental in 

 their attempts to describe this quality, but I have yet to find a 

 description that does it justice. One must actually hear the song in 

 aU its purity and sweetness before he can appreciate or even under- 

 stand the high place that the singer has attained among our native 

 birds. Attendant circumstances have much to do with the charm of 

 this song. My memory goes back to a warm spring morning in the 

 pine woods, the fragrance of the pine and a faint tang of wood smoke 

 in the air: it is in such a setting that the meUow notes of Bachman's 

 sparrow leave an unforgettable impression on the hearer. 



In addition to the usual song, Maurice Brooks (1938) describes a 

 variation from West Virginia that I have never been fortunate enough 

 to hear: "The louder songs are not uncommonly interspersed w^ith 

 'whisper songs,' so low that they are inaudible to a person at a little 

 distance. Frequently there are broken twitterings between the more 

 ordered songs as weU." He also quotes A. B. Brooks, who, after 

 following a singing bird through a weedy field, states that: "When I 

 approached a little nearer he discovered me and changed his song 

 into a fine, mixed-up combination of slurs, whistles, and trUls." 



Robert M. Mengel (1951) describes an evening flight song that he 

 heard near BowHng Green, Ky., which seems to have been missed by 

 observers in general: "Shortly after sundown I saw a small fringillid 

 in flight about 150 feet above the ground. It was ascending in an 

 erratic, fluttering manner, signing a song which was completely un- 

 familiar to me. The song was bubbling and exuberant and, though 

 distinctive, w^as diflScult to describe. According to my notes, it 

 reminded me of a much speeded-up Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) 

 song of WTen-like quality." On another occasion, when he heard the 

 same song again, he succeeded in collecting the singer, which proved 

 to be a Bachman's sparrow. 



A pecuHar sound, which I cannot find mentioned anywhere in the 

 literature, is a prolonged, monotone trill that I have heard uttered 

 only after sunset on winter afternoons. It seems to be some kind of 

 roosting assembly note. It is much longer than the long opening note 

 of the song and is pitched much higher. I have called it a trill rather 

 than a single, sustained note, but if it is a trill it is so exceedingly 

 fine and rapid that I cannot be sure of my term for it. Often at the 

 close of a Christmas bird count, and after I had failed to flush a single 

 Bachman's sparrow in its usual daytime haunts, I have gone to a 

 known roosting spot on the edge of the pine woods and, sitting quietly, 

 have heard this note come from several widely scattered locations in 

 the underbrush. 



Aside from its song, this species has few other sounds. As already 

 mentioned in the section Young, a bird flushed from the nest has been 



