How to Attract the Birds 



the robin? Probably he is the first bird we learned 

 to know by name. Among the first arrivals and the 

 latest stayers, he lives on terms of neighborly inti- 

 macy with us at least two-thirds of every year; yet 

 the fact that twenty-five distinct songs and calls have 

 been recorded of a single individual by one who took 

 no pains to study robin music in different sections of 

 the country — where bird voices differ as greatly as 

 human dialects — causes many people to lift their eye- 

 brows with an incredulous ''Is it possible?" 



How his first salute to spring electrifies us with 

 good cheer! The hair -sparrow's wiry little trill 

 has scarcely roused the sleeping choir at dawn 

 when he begins a subdued warble, which gradually 

 increases with the morning light until, his throat 

 attuned and all his powers fully alert, he 

 bursts ac last into the splendid exuberant 

 performances which so delight us. 

 Everybody knows it. Heard at its 

 best, none is more exhilarating 

 and few are more beautiful, 

 but even his own meditative, 

 tender, warbled even-song ex- 

 cels the matins. Then there 

 are two less familiar strains 

 given before and after rain, 

 the exquisite love song without 

 words yet perfectly understood, a 

 call of caution to his mate, a clear, 

 vigorous, ringing, military alarm, a 

 signal to take wing, a summons to his comrades 

 when they have gathered in an autumn flock, a 

 self-conscious brag, an outburst of temper, endear- 



124 



First 

 call for 

 break- 

 fast 



