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In the same room with these Larks there are three 

 Blackbirds, Merula merula (Liiniseus), which I pro- 

 cured from Germall^^ All of these birds are males, 

 and they sing chiefly late in the afternoon, but much 

 more frequently during the night, especially when 

 there is moonlight. Early in February I heard 

 constantly what I supposed was the song of one of 

 these Blackbirds. The curious part of it was that 

 only one measure of the song was produced, a 

 silvery whistling sequence of five or six notes rather 

 longer drawn out, and given with much precision. 

 For several weeks I ascribed this to one of the Black- 

 birds, and believed that because of the shelter 

 afforded them by many evergreen trees in my bird 

 room that it could only be this bird, though I was 

 unable to see the singer while hearing the song. My 

 friend, Mr. Horsfall, who was with me during all the 

 time, checked my observations, but we neither of us 

 were able to locate the songster. 



One of my Meadowlarks of the brood men- 

 tioned attracted our attention by his behaviour and 

 deportment during the early part of April. In 

 addition to his song, which was quite dissimilar to 

 that of a wild Meadowlark, he accompanied the per- 

 formance by what I should call a parade or dance, 

 analogous to the strut of the Turkey-cock. It is so 

 marked a characteristic of this and other individuals 

 of the same species that I determined to have it 

 recorded in a color sketch, and for two or three days 

 Mr. Horsfall and I spent much time in getting the 

 position and manner of the bird while occupied in 

 this kind of behaviour. The bird sang frequently 

 while going through the manoeuvre described, and 

 both of us finally saw and heard him many times 

 sing, preparatory to or after his own song, the cadence 

 described, which I had referred, before I saw the 

 Meadowlark do it, to the European Blackbird. 



