BALTIMORE ORIOLE, 85 



tshoo and ^k'tuf a ti'if a tuf a tea kerry ;'^ another bird I have 

 occasionally heard to call for hours, with some little variation, 

 tu teo teo teo too too, in a loud, querulous, and yet almost lu- 

 dicrously merry strain. At other intervals the sensations of 

 solitude seem to stimulate sometimes a loud and interrog- 

 atory note, echoed forth at intervals, as k'rry kerry ? and 

 terminating plaintively k' ny k' ny k'ny, tu ; the voice falling 

 off very slenderly in the last long syllable, which is apparently 

 an imitation from the Cardinal Grosbeak, and the rest is de- 

 rived from the Crested Titmouse, whom they have already 

 heard in concert as they passed through the warmer States. 

 Another interrogatory strain which I heard here in the spring 

 of 1S30 was precisely, 'yip k'rry, 'yip, 'yip k'l-ry, very loud and 

 oft repeated. Another male went in his ordinary key, tsherry 

 tsheny, isiiipee tsh' rry, — notes copied from the exhaustless stock 

 of the Carolina Wren (also heard on his passage), but modu- 

 lated to suit the fancy of our vocahst. The female likewise 

 sings, but less agreeably than the male. One which I had 

 abundant opportunity of observing, while busied in the toil of 

 weaving her complicated nest, every now and then, as a relief 

 from the drudgery in which she was solely engaged, sung, in a 

 sort of querulous and rather plaintive strain, the strange, un- 

 couth syllables, 'ka 'ked kowa, keka keka, the final tones loud 

 and vaulting, which I have little doubt were an imitation of the 

 discordant notes of some South American bird. For many 

 days she continued this tune at intervals without any variation. 

 The male, also while seeking his food in the same tree with his 

 mate, or while they are both attending on their unfledged 

 brood, calls frequently in a low, friendly whisper, 'tzuait, tw'it. 

 Indeed, all the individuals of either sex appear pertinaciously 

 to adhere for weeks to the same quaint syllables which they 

 have accidentally collected. 



This bird then, like the Starling, appears to have a taste for 

 mimicry, or rather for sober imitation. A Cardinal Grosbeak 

 happening, very unusually, to pay us a visit, his harmonious 



' The last phrase loud and ascending, the tea plaintive, and the last syllable 

 tender and echoing. 



