THE RING-OUZEL AS A SONGSTER 137 



yards from liis mate he would repeat his song about 

 twice every minute until it was dark. He was the latest 

 of the songsters, and would sing on the coldest evenings, 

 even when it was raining. 



My daily visit^s to this nest were greatly resented by 

 the birds. It was their misfortune that they had buildcd 

 their home so near me and had made it so beautiful. 

 I was also much interested in the various cries and 

 sounds they emitted when excited by my presence. The 

 male would flit and fly about at a distance, uttering loud 

 clacking or chacking cries interspersed with a variety of 

 little exclamatory notes, while the female, more anxious, 

 would dash at me, chacking and screaming all the time. 

 But the instant I left the site their rage would vanish; 

 the male would begin his set "wheero-wheero" whistle, 

 while the female would break out in a sort of song 

 of her own which resembled the first attempts at singing 

 of a young throstle — a medley composed of a variety 

 of guttural and squeaking notes interspersed with more 

 or less musical chirps. 



What struck me as most curious was that when 

 troubled with my presence at the nest they uttered two 

 distinct sounds which are not in the blackbird's language 

 but are part of the language of the typical thrushes 

 (Turdns) ; one was the prolonged, tremulous, harsh and 

 guttural alarm cry of the missel-tlirush, the other the 

 low, long-drawn, wailing note of the throstle when 

 anxious about its nest or young, a note so high-pitched 

 as to be inaudible to some persons. It can only be sup- 

 posed that these different sounds, expressing apprehension 



