BIRD LANGUAGE AN INDEX OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIP. 



S. N. RHOADS. 



Among those birds which we class low down in the scale of develop- 

 ment it is easy to trace the similarity of language which characterizes 

 them all, but as we rise from these to the higher groups, whose vocal 

 powers rival even those of man's invention, the genetic relationship 

 often seems to disappear. It takes no prophet to foretell that this 

 new duck from the Philippines will quack or that new species of pigeon 

 will coo, but give him a thrush or a finch whose voice has yet been 

 unrecorded, and his predictions are useless. Perhaps there is no bet- 

 ter way of recognizing a family rerjcmblance in bird notes and songs 

 and being impressed thereby than in the exploration of a distant 

 region whose faunal relations have a more or less remote connection 

 with the one in which you have lived. One of the most pleasing 

 memories of my sojourn in the semi-tropic wilds of Texas and Arizona 

 was to hear coming from the throats of strangely-colored birds the old 

 home melodies of thrush, wren, oriole and tanager. At such a time 

 our ears grow so sensitive to anything that savors of " auld lang syne " 

 we begin to fully realize the possibilities that exist in bird language 

 as an aid to the study of bird genealogy. 



For the present it will suffice to merely suggest a course of research 

 along this line. In the first place, the song or language of birds is a 

 far more reliable index of family and genus than color, and in many 

 cases more so than feather characters as often used in diagnosis. 

 Again in the higher oscines, whose songs appear dissimilar to the less 

 critical ear, there are certain foundation or basal notes used in com- 

 mon, as in the falsetto of the robin, wood thrush, hermit and veery. 

 In these also there are resemblances, unmistakably thrushlike in their 

 call and scolding notes. I am informed that the same is character- 

 istic of the European song thrush and blackbird. 



Among the wrens there is the best illustration of the constancy 

 of song character, and their scolding notes are wonderfully ahke, from 

 that of the great Cactus Wren of the Mexican deserts to the startled 

 cry of the tiny sprite that lives in the cold dark dells of the Alaskan 



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