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Bird - Lore 



secret of their success is that the doors are 

 not opened until after the Martins arrive 

 in the spring. The Sparrows are perse- 

 cuted at all times. — Chas. A. Stock- 

 bridge, Fort Wayne, Ind. 



Starling Imitating Notes of the 

 Wood Pewee 



With the increasing abundance of the 

 Starling in the vicinity of New York, we 

 have come to refer to this species almost 

 any unfamiliar clucks, chatters, squeals 

 or whistles. In this connection, the case 

 of a Starling which has added the notes of 

 a native species to its already rich legiti- 

 mate vocabulary is of interest. 



In the late fall of 1910, some weeks 

 after Wood Pewees had left for the South, 

 the writer heard the characteristic notes 

 of this species on several occasions near 

 his home at Englewood, N. J., — once 

 close at hand in some Norway spruces 

 beside the house. 



The sound was not definitely located, 

 but circumstances pointed to the Starling 

 as responsible for this unseasonable bird 

 note. Quite unexpectedly, on the morn- 

 ing of January 11, 1911, while I was 

 walking to the car near the crest of the 

 hill between the golf course and Leonia 

 Junction, characteristic Wood Pewee notes 

 were heard, and their author, a Starling, 

 promptly located on the top of a nearby 

 telegraph pole, repeated both the pee- 

 a-wee and pec-ah notes, interspersed with 

 scarcely audible Starling-like chirps and 

 twitters. The imitation was close enough 

 to deceive one perfectly familiar with the 

 notes, but once there was an unfamiliar 

 quaver in the ah, and perhaps the pee- 

 a-wee was a little higher pitched and, 

 with practice, not quite indistinguishable 

 from the genuine. — John Treadwell 

 Nichols. 



[The Editor is familiar with the Star- 

 ling's Peewee notes, which Mr. Nichols 

 describes, and, in an earlier number of 

 Bird-Lore, has recorded his surprise on 



hearing what was apparently a Wood 

 Pewee, when no bird of that species should 

 have been in the United States. Several 

 times since, he has seen the Starling utter 

 these notes, and Mr. Nichols' observations 

 now confirm a growing belief that they are 

 part of the bird's natural repertoire, and 

 not an imitation. Can some reader of 

 Bird-Lore in England, who is familiar 

 with our Wood Pewee's notes, tell us 

 whether English Starlings have a similar 

 call?— Ed.] 



Song Season of the Nightingale 



So many Americans are disappointed 

 not to hear the Nightingale in June (or 

 only a very poor song) that I am venturing 

 to write and say that the Nightingale 

 sings at night, and at its best in the first 

 fortnight of May. I have allowed enough 

 margin for it to recover from migration 

 and the cold April nights, and also for it 

 to be heard before ceasing altogether. 



It does not sing in Devonshire, and I 

 think not in Cornwall, nor in Wales or any 

 of the northern counties. Cambridge is 

 an excellent place, as are Surrey and 

 Hampshire, that I know of. 



It is even possible to hear it in Wimble- 

 don, which is close to London; indeed, a 

 great many of our Warblers may be seen 

 and heard there and in Richmond Park, 

 notably the Redstart and Willow Warbler, 

 which are the easiest to see and hear 

 in those places. — Mariana Hopkinson, 

 Cambridge, England. 



[In connection with the song of the 

 Nightingale it will doubtless both surprise 

 and disgust all true lovers of bird music 

 to learn that it has been recorded by the 

 phonograph, the records now being for sale 

 in this country. It is sufficiently painful to 

 hear a caged Nightingale voice its passion 

 to irresponsive walls, but the limit of vio- 

 lated sentiment would appear to have 

 been reached when the music of the poet's 

 own bird can be reproduced by the turn 

 of a crank! — Ed.] 



