Id. 6 Bicknell on the Singing of Birds. [April 



tinues with some yearly regularity until the middle of August, at 

 which time, or even a little before, it may cease ; or the time of 

 cessation may be delayed a week or ten days. Latest dates for 

 singing are August 29 and 31. I have noticed no indication of 

 singing in the autumn. 



In several instances I have known the songs of early spring 

 arrivals to be so aberrant as scarcely to be recognizable, and have 

 noted similar but lesser variation in the songs of later comers. 

 There is also considerable individual variation in the song, the 

 normal song being sometimes prolonged into elaborate varia- 

 tions. Mr. J. A. Allen has written of this species, as ob- 

 served in Florida (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. II, No. 3, 

 p. 279), that "The songs of the males were so different from 

 those of the northern bird that the species was almost unrecog- 

 nizable by me from its notes." As illustrating further geo- 

 graphical variation in voice of this species. I may quote from a 

 letter from Mr. Fred. T. Jencks of Providence, that "The Field 

 Sparrow in Illinois usually twice repeats the song he gives in 

 the East." 



Junco hiemalis. Slate-colored Junco. 



Early March is most often the time when we first hear the 

 song of this Sparrow ; but, according to the character of the 

 season, the beginning of singing may vary within two weeks in 

 either direction from the average time. After the early days of 

 April, singing is not commonly heard, and in some years it 

 ceases before the end of March. April 17 is my latest record, 

 although the species often remains into May. The Junco 

 has two very different songs: a simple trill, somewhat similar 

 to that of the Chipping Sparrow ; and a faint whispering warble, 

 usually much broken but not without sweetness, and sometimes 

 continuing intermittently for many minutes. It seems to slip very 

 readily from a simple chirping, and is always the song with 

 which the species begins the season. Later, the first mentioned 

 becomes the more general if not the only song, as I found it to be 

 in the Catskill Mountains in summer, when the birds were 

 breeding. 



The Snowbird does not often sing in the autumn, but I 

 have heard both of its soughs in October and November; and it 



