WARBLER SONGS. 



^ 1 "^HERE are, or were at the last count, fifty-seven species 

 -■- and sixteen subspecies of warblers accredited to North 

 America north of Mexico. Of this number the writer has 

 been able to find described more or less fully the songs of 

 forty-six species, leaving eleven species yet to be studied. Of 

 the subspecies it may be said that the songs are so similar to 

 the songs of the species from which they have sprung that 

 they are practically indistinguishable and so need not be 

 counted in the final result. If there are exceptions I have 

 been unable to find them. 



These forty-six species (with their subspecies where any 

 occur) can readily be divided according to the style of .song, 

 and the divisions subdivided, but it must be understood that 

 this .style of division plays havoc with the accepted .systematic 

 arrangement of the group. For convenience we may first 

 distinguish two groups : Those with whistling songs ; those 

 with song otherwi.se. Treating the latter group first because 

 it includes the more generalized species if not the more gen- 

 eralized types of song, the sub-group whicli .seems naturally 

 to stand first may be designated : 



THIN, WIRY, HIGH PITCHED .SOX(iS. 



While this may .seem an arbitrary and therefore unnatural 

 group, it is convenient in bringing together songs which are 

 readily over-looked amid the May medley of stronger voiced 

 singers. If, as .seems likely, this type of .song is the more 

 primitive one, the group is not an unnatural one. 



Perhaps the only character strictly common to ever\- mem- 

 ber of the group as here con.stituted, is the high pitch of the 

 .song. Some songs are wir^-, some insect-like, some thin with- 

 out being wiry, but all are high in pitch — so high that some 

 ears seem incapable of hearing them unless close at hand. But 

 it does not follow that the.se .songs are weak. On the contrary, 

 .some of them carry far. just as the shrillino^ of the cicada 

 carries far. 



