228 



^be 3nbcritance of Sohg in IPas^crinc 



Further Obskrvations on the Devei^opment of vSong 



AND NliST-BUIIvDING IN HaND-REARED ROSE-BREASTED 



GrOvSBEaKvS, Zamelodia ludoviciana (Ivinnseus).* 

 By W11.IJAM E. D. Scott. 



I have recorded some observations in regard to 

 the growth, plumage, and song of hand-reared 

 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. It is the purpose of 

 the present paper to carry these observations a 

 step further and to describe what occurred to the 

 birds after they were mated, as recorded in the 

 previous paper. 



About the third week in May, 1904, the song of 

 the two male birds, each of which now had a mate, 

 became crystalized and assumed a definite character, 

 which was almost alike in both, but was absolutely 

 and entirely different from the song of the Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak as it is heard when wild out of 

 doors. I have had for some years in a cage one of the 

 Green Bulbuls of India, known as Hard wick's Bulbul, 

 Chloropsis hardiuickii, Jardine and Selby. This bird 

 is singularly persistent in singing for about nine 

 months in the year. It is a male. My two pairs of 

 Rose-breasted Gro.sbeaks were in a cage adjacent to 

 that of the Bulbul, and by the middle of May 1904 

 the songs of the two male Grosbeaks w^ere so closely 

 an imitation of the insistent song of the Bulbul 

 that it was difficult, when not looking at the birds, 

 to tell which species was singing. I may say that 

 the song of the Green Bulbul is emphatic, clear, 

 high-pitched, rather melodious, and delivered so that 

 the whole does not occupy more time than does the 

 soug of the Song Sparrow, which, in a certain way, 



• Reprinted from Science, N. S., Vol. XX., No. 504. 



