150 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ful, whistled whisper. It may either rise or, more commonly, fall in 

 pitch at the end, and the second syllable is often doubled — wheep- 

 pi-pi — a little vibratory quality running through it all. The first 

 syllable, sweeping upward in pitch, receives the accent. The bird 

 sings throughout the summer and well into the autumn. 



Often in spring the phoebe gives his song from the air. He 

 launches out from his perch repeating his chip note rapidly several 

 times, and flies about in a seemingly distracted manner while he utters 

 his song over and over, extending it sometimes with a long series of 

 he-he-bes. Dr. J. J. Murray (MS.) writes: "I have several times 

 heard what might be called the flight song of the phoebe, always late 

 in March, at the time when nesting is just beginning. On one such 

 occasion the bird flew almost straight up into the air for about 50 

 feet; then, with tail fully spread and wings fluttering, circled and 

 dived, all the while uttering a series of quick, sharp whistled notes 

 lesembling its ordinary call; and finally returned to a perch near 

 where the flight began." 



Early in the morning before daylight, a time that some of the fly- 

 catchers devote to a special song heard only in the twilight, the 

 phoebe redoubles his singing ; song follows song with scarcely a pause 

 between them, and when two or three are within hearing, a perfect 

 chorus of singing ensues. Horace W. Wright (1912) says of the early 

 morning singing : "The song is usually continued without much pause 

 for an hour or more." 



Albert R. Brand (1938) finds that the approximate mean average 

 pitch of the phoebe's song is at the rate of 4,300 vibrations a second, 

 about the same as the eastern meadowlark. 



Of the minor notes, the commonest is a sharp, clearly cut chip, re- 

 sembling a call note of the swamp sparrow. Francis H. Allen (MS.) 

 says of it: "The ordinary chip note of the species is sometimes 

 followed by a sort of echo on a lower pitch and purer in tone, as 

 chip-pi. The pi is not nearly so loud and emphatic as the chip; it 

 suggests a mechanical after-effect not deliberately sounded." The 

 chip note is used as a simple exclamation, or as a note of concern when 

 we come near the nest. 



I have also heard a quarrelsome tree-tree-tree-tree, given in a rapid 

 series; a soft note, tree-oo, falling in pitch; and a rather musical 

 whistled treet, sometimes doubled to sereet. 



Olive Thorne Miller (1892) says: "Whenever a phoebe alighted on 

 the fence he made a low but distinct remark that sounded marvelously 

 like ''cheese -it,'' " 



Field marks. — The phoebe is a flycatcher of midsize with a dark 

 bill, practically no wing bars (except in juvenal plumage), and no 

 eye ring. Olive Thorne Miller (1892) speaks of him as "the loneliest 



