Taverner — On 1;»()8 in S. E. Michigan. 205 



pink mouth, ending int a black hole of a gullet, together with 

 the unexpected and threatening noise, was startling, and 

 would, I doubt not, have caused the sturdiest hawk to hesi- 

 tate a moment had he paused long enough to see it. 



The Gray-cheeked Thrush is generally silent as far as song 

 goes, as it passes through here. May 1(5. however, one broke 

 the rule and favored us with selections that are usually re- 

 served for the more northern home. He sat on a telegraph 

 wire passing the rear of the house and there sang all one late 

 afternoon. The song was too rich, varied and illusive to put 

 into words. Some day, perhaps, some one will perfect a 

 method of recording bird songs by which all their beauty can 

 be preserved. So far such attempts have been futile to the 

 masses, and of use to the few but to stimulate the imagina- 

 tion to the memoT}^ of songs once heard before. 



White-crowned Sparrows have been rather scarce in this 

 section since the fall of 1904. Since then and up to this 

 spring the numbers of this species I have seen have been re- 

 markably few. This }'ear. however, they have been more 

 common, and I have again noted them in their usual numb.^rs, 

 both spring and fall. 



August 9 I heard and watched a Carolina Wren sing for 

 some time in almost the same locality where I took another 

 pne. August 11, 1906, as described in the Auk, 1907, 147. It 

 was deeply interested in exploring the recesses of an old stump 

 and brush pile. Led hither by its bubbling bursts of song. I 

 approached very closely. It saw me, but that did not hinder 

 its continuing the work in hand. It kept right on, merely sat- 

 isfying its curiosity with an occasional peek-a-boo look at me 

 from under or over or around a bit of stick, then' exploding 

 with a perfectly indiscribable burst of song, afterwards re- 

 garding me with a sparkling black eye and a quizzical twist 

 of the head, as if to say, "You can't do that." And I had to 

 admit that I could not. 



It is rather a peculiar coincidence that the first and second 

 records for this species in the county should have been made 

 in spots net a hundred yards removed from each otluer and 

 within three days of the same date, though two years apart. 



