6(5 



rHE OOLOGlSr. 



their soug; though no combinatiou of 

 letters can even suggest to one the pos- 

 sible beauty of the song of this woocl- 

 land artist. At the same time a com- 

 pany of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers begin 

 their conversation of '■'spah-spnh," as 

 they move from twig to twig. A mo- 

 ment later a Whip-poor-will begins 

 singing in some brushwood across the 

 creek, not more than twenty feet dis- 

 tant. Turn the opera glasses over there 

 if you will boys; even if it is light 

 enough to see the log clearly you won't 

 see him. You don't? 1 thought so. 



While he is singing we hear the hum 

 of beetles winging their way through 

 the branches, in the twilight; and the 

 trees, whose tops are wet v/ith the fogs 

 of the morning, begin dropping the 

 distilled moisture upon the dry leaves 

 beneath. Soon after the Whip-poor- 

 will leaves and we hear the broken 

 but loud warble of the Red-eyed Vireo 

 and the rich vvhistles of the Redbird as 

 additions to the now loud chorus of 

 Chats, Wood Thrushes and Whip-poor- 

 wills. The latter are still singing, 

 though in not so great numbers as a 

 quarter of an hour before. 



We will leave the stump and take a 

 flying leap over the brook, landing on 

 a mass of aromatic ferns and clamber 

 up the hill. Here w-) are on a high 

 and somewhat level point, on which 

 the growth of underbrush is not so 

 heavy. Here are a number of Red- 

 starts, all males, in the tops of the tu- 

 lip trees, moving from twig to twig, 

 and often uttering their whistling song, 

 ''quee quee quee giieep.'" On an open 

 point of the hilltop we hear a loud, 

 whistling note, the tone of which re- 

 minds me of the song of the Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak, but I'm not sure 

 and the bird does not favor us with a 

 view. In the top of a tall tree near by 

 is a Warbler s'm^in^ "whee lohee whee 

 whce her wliec.'" I don't recognize him. 

 Do you? Hold on! Hear that down in 

 the thicket, there? A sharp '-chij)," 

 followed by "chip, zree-e-e-e" in loud, 



sprightly tones. I'm downright sorry 

 you can't tell me what that is, for I 

 heard it for the first time two years ago 

 a mile south of here. I got a glimpse 

 of the bird in a grape-vine thicket, shot 

 at him, missed, and he's been a ''miss" 

 tery ever since. Then I heard several 

 right here last year and never got a 

 glimpse of one. Let's ti'y it again now. 

 Pshaw, he has quit singing already, 

 and that thicket is so dense we will 

 have to wait till he begins again. There 

 is the song again a hundred yards be- 

 hind us, but before we have gone half 

 that distance it has ceased again. We 

 had better go back to the point of the 

 hill again. 



Standing here, where we can see 

 over all the surrounding woodland, we 

 see, over a hundred feet below, the 

 creek valley, covered with a dense car- 

 pet of blue grass, and diversified with 

 clumps of osage orange round masses 

 of hawthorn and patches of young syc- 

 amores; while along the bend of the 

 creek are many old sycamoi'es, whose 

 massive white limbs appear like marble 

 against the dark background. The sun 

 has not yet risen, but it is light enough 

 to see everything distinctly. A horizon 

 of bix'dsong extends around us, an ap- 

 parently confused conglomeration of 

 indistinguishable sounds, but after list- 

 ening a few moments one singer after 

 another is picked out, until we '-an 

 recognize the songs of all birds pre- 

 viously mentioned, and in addition, the 

 Kentucky Warbler, the Maryland Yel- 

 low throat, the Blue-winged Yellow 

 Warbler, the Cuckoo, Tufted Tit, Blue 

 Jay and Crow. A moment later sever- 

 al loud rich notes, followed by "chip- 

 urr, chipt-urr,''' comes from a nearby 

 poplar, and a Scarlet Tanager flies to a 

 large elm, the same one in which the 

 Warbler was heard singing some time 

 before. He is there yet, by the way. 

 and is singing the same soug. Hellol 

 it's a Blue-winged Yellow Warbler, 

 but that's a new song. Now he has 

 changed it, it is "ivhec-whay-chur-chur- 



