176 



Bird -Lore 



Wren's song. Thus a common phase of 

 the Cardinal's song sounds like wet-chyear- 

 -wet-wel-wet or wet-wet-wet-chyear-wet, while 

 the Wren seems to say, chugar-beet-chugar- 

 beet-chugar-beel-chiigar. Often the Car- 

 dinal's song is only a repetition as peeto- 

 peeto-peeto-peeto-peet, but when this is the 

 case it usually starts out rather slowly, 

 becoming more rapid near the end, 

 whereas the Wren's song is unvarying in 

 rapidity throughout. 



The song of the Tufted Titmouse also 

 lacks the ringing, tinkling quality so 

 noticeable in the Carolina Wren's song; 

 in fact, to me it sometimes sounds almost 

 nasal, and is not, usually, I think, quite 

 so rapid as the Wren's song. 



Some other common phases of the Caro- 

 lina Wren's song sound like the following: 

 sheel-doit - sheel-doil-skeel - doit - shed - doit; 

 chugar-tree repeated as many times, or tea- 

 kettle; another, pbe-cheo, still another u'liec- 

 iidle, each repeated from three to seven 

 times (usually four or five). Often a bird 

 will change suddenly from one phase to 

 another, sounding almost like another 

 bird. I have the following notes taken 

 from a bird that was good at this: "Song 

 sounds like chugar-beet, repeated four or 

 five times; now changes to pbe-cheo, re- 

 peated same number of times for about a 

 minute; change to cheedl-doit, repeated 

 three times once then sheel-doit about 

 a minute or more; then change back to 

 pbe-cheo; now changes to pccee-ottltle, re- 

 peated two to four times and often ending 

 with first syllable; now a pause of one or 

 two minutes, then che-pul, repeated rapidly 

 from five to seven times." — Merri.am G. 

 Lewis, Laurenceville, Va. 



A February Kingfisher in Wisconsin 



On February 6, when crossing a foot- 

 bridge over the outlet of Green Lake, I 

 heard a splash in the water almost directly 

 beneath me. I looked over the railing of 

 the bridge and was surprised to see a 

 Belted Kingfisher rise from the water with 

 a minnow, and alight in a willow tree 

 about five rods away, where he could be 

 seen plainly, and where he gave his call^ 



a loud, harsh rattle which is unmistakable. 

 He has been seen often since that time 

 alo^g the creek, which is always open. — 

 Geo. E. B.\ldwin, Green Lake, Wis. 



The Tufted Titmouse in Wisconsin 



On December i, 1912, a Tufted Titmouse 

 made its appearance at Whitewater, 

 Wis. It was seen bj' many of the 

 bird-wise people and offered food. It is 

 there at this writing, March 15, and 

 regularly visits the feeding-tables of its 

 friends, Mrs. E. L. Shutts, Miss F. L. 

 Esterly and Prof. A. S. Watson. On March 

 27, 1912, Mr. Elmore Elliott Peake saw a 

 Tufted Titmouse at Lake Geneva, Wis., 

 and writes as follows: "I was working at 

 my desk when its loud peter! peter! a 

 sound familiar from childhood in southern 

 Ohio, suddenly electrified me. I had the 

 bird under observation for twenty minutes 

 with a glass, and several times as near as 

 fifteen feet, so there is no possibility of 

 mistake. A daj' or two later, other ob- 

 servers reported it to me, one of them 

 living up the lake a mile and a half. — 

 I. N. Mitchell, Milwaukee, Wis. 



The Starling, American Robin and 

 Bluebird in England 



May an English subscriber to Bird- 

 Lore be permitted to send a few notes on 

 birds? 



.A correspondent in the number for 

 November -December asks whether the 

 habit of following cattle is newly acquired 

 by Starlings. Indeed no; it is one of their 

 best-known habits. I have seen a Starling 

 sitting on a sheep's back; it had no doubt 

 been searching the wool for ticks. 



In England the Starling is a great 

 mimic. I wonder whether it has developed 

 that habit in America. The Starling, I 

 take it, is a distant relative of your Mead- 

 owlark. One spring day, I was positively 

 startled to hear a note exactly resembling 

 the last long-drawn-out syllable of the 

 Meadowlark's song (which I had heard in 

 the United States a year or two before). 

 I found that it was a Starling that uttered 



