56 



THE OOLOGIST. 



the wing, is the VVhite-rumped Shrike. 

 It is not generally known that this 

 Shrike, or for that matter, any other, 

 has a song. 1 have heard the song sev- 

 eral times and can testify to a series of 

 very agreeable notes nicely modulated. 

 We cannot call the song really melodi- 

 ous, but it is still possessed of unique- 

 ness, as it is essentially unlike the notes 

 of any other bird of my acquaintance. 

 I once heard this Shrike sing as it Hew 

 in the characteristic manner of flight 

 singers, on fluttering wings. 



The true love song of the Golden- 

 crowned Thrush or Oven-bird has been 

 but rarely referred to by writers, in fact, 

 the best musical efforts of this species 

 have only been described in compara- 

 tively recent times. The common loud 

 clanking notes, so often heard, have 

 been listened to by all observers, but a 

 .superior strain, apparently only occas- 

 sionally uttered, has been listened to by 

 but few intelligently. I feel safe in say- 

 ing that no bird among us which is so 

 well known, has eluded the observers 

 of bii'd songs as this one has done. 



I listened to the love song of the Oven- 

 bii-d for the first time in 1880. A burst 

 of melody reached me in a dense piece 

 of low woods, well filled with under- 

 brush, and the delightful notes were 

 surprising and cIoul)]y pleasing tome 

 in this location. 



At first on hearing the song the idea 

 presented itself that a species new to 

 me was singing, and my extreme care 

 in reaching the glade in hopes of secur- 

 ing a shot, secured me a chance of wit- 

 nessing a most singular performance. 

 Crawling through the brush 1 came to 

 u partial clearing, over which a bird, 

 evidently in the highest transports of 

 joy was fluttering in irregular llight. 

 It is not surprising that I failed to re- 

 cognize the performer in this, to me 

 unusual aspect, for there was not one 

 feature in its notes or movements in 

 which it resemblea its ordinary and 

 imderstood habits. 



Observing another bird, evidently a 

 Golden-crowned Thrush, and its mate, 

 perched on the ground near, and which 

 appeared to be the center of attraction 

 to the delighted warbler overhead. I 

 quietly awaited the movements of the 

 pair. Never had I heard this song be- 

 fore and never had I witnessed such a 

 scene. This was indeed, making love 

 with a spirit not often witnessed among 

 our warblers. 



The song was almost continuous, that 

 is, together with the interruptions of 

 the more subdued call or conversation- 

 notes, and the common chattering- 

 notes, so well known, and described by 

 Coues as a liarsh crescendo, and was 

 largely of the most melodious strains. 



The energetic, unconscious fellow 

 was in the meantime constantly flying 

 above his inamorata, describing nearly 

 every form of llight except .sailing. Fii'st 

 dashing to the edge of the glade, then 

 rising to the tops of the bushes he 

 would flutter almost dii'ectly upward 

 as we have often seen the European 

 Sparrow or House Wren do, and reach- 

 ing a height of twenty feet or more, 

 would half flutter, toward his mate, or 

 dash about the clearing in varying evo- 

 lutions, almost constantly singing. She 

 in the meantime sat silent, and proba- 

 bly interested in the performance. The 

 appearance of a third party on the 

 scene, undoubtedly, also a lover,caused 

 the ecstatic singer to dash into the 

 brush. 



A number of species of birds em- 

 braced in the systematic division of 

 singers, aside from those spoken of, are 

 known to utter their notes on the wing, 

 and from the Crow to the Martin, which 

 is the nea^'est to a musician among the 

 Swallows, there are many which give 

 their best efforts when flying. But 

 these attempts, although they answer 

 the purposes of their possessors, are not 

 musical, or at least not in the sense 

 of appreciation of man. 



It will li(^ observed that a tremulous 



