THE FLICKP:R. 27 



mild day in March and increasing in length, frequency and 

 rapidity as the season progresses, with intervals of depression 

 during cold or stormy weather, until about April lOth when it 

 becomes monotonous, the notes often being uttered at the rate 

 of four or five to the second ; this continues until about the 

 20th, after which it becomes infrequent, much shorter and 

 rather subdued in tone, until nest building, incubation and 

 care of young claim its undivided attention and the song is re- 

 stricted as much from caution as from any thing else, it is only 

 semi-occasional until late in June when the young are well 

 along ; it revives once more for a few days in a brief early 

 morning — o:o() to 7:1-") — or before or after shower song. As a 

 cooler day appears in August or September it becomes more 

 frequent and even lively, especially after a refreshing shower, 

 but by the first week in October is heard no more. A careful 

 observer at Perry and Madison, Wisconsin, has arrived at about 

 the .same conclusion, i. e., it begins the cackling .song in the 

 country previous to the towns, is more clamorous in the morn- 

 ing and evening, almost cea.sing after it becomes well mated, 

 and cropping out again in the months of Augu.st and Sep- 

 tember. — J. Eugene Law. 



Love or Breeding Songs. The last three songs are essentualh- 

 of this character. I am aware that .some are mating notes only 

 while the active breeding .sea.son claims others exclusively, 

 yet I am unable to make such .separation. The Scythe- 

 whetting or Rollicking Song is probabl>- a form of greeting 

 as well as l<->ve, as it is uttered when two or more meet. 

 It has been likened to the .sound produced by the sharpening 

 of a .scythe, and is a sharp metallic icicli-er, zcic/i-ah, zcick-a/i, 

 7vee-cha\ ka-icick, or co-flick of the New England and Middle 

 States ; quit-to and qnit-tu, of Ohio ; hurrick-ah, of Minnesota ; 

 tse-wet and cluick-a-chuck, of Iowa, repeated from two to twelve 

 times. The Flicker Song is .so hopele.s.sly entangled and inter- 

 woven with the Scythe-whetting Song as hardly worth recog- 

 nizing as .separate when all the localities are taken into consid- 

 eration. The Wake-up Song is le.ss frequently uttered, and is 

 the same throughout the north, from Maine to Iowa, as an oft- 

 repeated wake-up, ica-ciip, wc-ciip, zve-cougli, ivick-up, icick-a/i, 

 or hick-up, and in Georgia chuck-up ; great emphasis being 

 laid on one or the other syllables, u.sually the first. I regard 



