MIMICRY OF THRUSH 205 



tell, etc., the accent being on the second syllable. 

 I must repeat, that imitation, like variation, is most 

 in evidence towards the end of the season of song. 

 In March 1889 I was staying at Weston-super- 

 Mare, at which place the thrushes abundantly 

 imitated the dunlin, there a common and noisy 

 bird throughout the colder months. At that time 

 the dunlins could be heard all day long uttering 

 their call -notes. I have a note, that on loth 

 March a thrush in a garden in front of the house 

 (Manilla Crescent) had been imitating the dunlin 

 so much that I thought a flock of the birds must 

 be in the vicinity, until I watched the thrush 

 singing within the distance of a few yards. It 

 rarely uttered the cry of the dunlin without re- 

 peating it many times, just as it is heard when 

 a flock of dunlins is near. Here is an extract 

 from my notes, recording a song by this thrush : — 

 " Dunlin — dunlin — wood -warbler's plaintive note 

 (alarm) — dunlin — house-sparrow's chissick — crow — 

 crow — dunlin — crow — crow — tree-pipit — dunlin — 

 dunlin — dunlin — dunlin — crow,0 — crow — bequick." 

 Each of the above subjects represents a phrase. 

 Out of 37 phrases sung on the same day by a 

 thrush near Worle, three miles inland, eight con- 

 tained imitations of the dunlin. In The Zoologist 



