176 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 



note that is practically identical. The boat-tailed grackle 

 has a rather musical call of "chur-dick" besides its numer- 

 ous harsh squawks and calls. The rapidly repeated ground 

 call, or cackling sound, of the meadow lark is similar to 

 single-note calls of the family. 



The callnote of the warbler family is a sharp "chick.'' 



Tlie native sparrows have very similar callnotes : 

 "tseep" or "tseet" and a sharp, metallic "chink." The 

 cardinal and the rosebreast show their relationship to the 

 finches in their calls ; that of the cardinal being a sibilant 

 "tsip'', while the rosebreast gives a bacchanalian "hip." 

 The towhee is one of the most engaging of the finches, his 

 callnote being his own name, which to some ears sounds 

 like "chewink", but which is very distinctly "towhee" tome. 

 His song is charming, sounding something like the sylla- 

 bles "tee-tew-pilla, willa, willa." (Ex. 30-32). 



The robin and the blue jay have a great variety of call- 

 notes and seem able to express whatever they wish, even 

 to swear words ! 



Among the robin's calls are "quiddle, quiddle, quiddle, 

 quiddle" and "quee, quee, quee, quee" or squee-ee — 

 squee-ee," sometimes "squee-ee — squee-ee, tut, tut." He 

 also has a rapidlv repeated "tut, tut, tut, tut, tut," and a 

 "kek-kek— kek-kek-kek." 



The robin has a comical habit of singing his regular song 

 for a while and then repeating it sotto voce in a high 

 falsetto. One of the strangest of the blue jay's calls is that 

 which sounds like the rattling of a handful of nuts. 



The calls and songs of the flycatchers offer an interest- 

 ing study ; among them, the "sneeze" of the kingbird ; the 

 jolly, loud, boistrous and self-assertive calls of the great- 

 crest, the pensive "pee-a-wee, pee-ur" of the wood pewee, 

 and the self-named "phoebe" and "chebec." 



The woodpeckers, too, offer a fertile field for study. 

 There is the loud "pique" of the hairy and the downy 

 which sounds like the stone-mason's chisel on the block. 

 This callnote is sometimes rapidly repeated to make a 

 kind of a song. Then there is the "perk" of the redhead, the 

 cat-like snarl of the sapsucker and the "burr-rr" of the red- 

 bellied woodi)ecker. The flicker, or yellowhammer, has the 



