Vol. XVIII 

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1 Brewster, /I « Ornithological Mystery. ^2? 



effort, the terminal quecah. This note, which might perhaps be 

 as well rendered by queer, or even simply keeer, and which was 

 occasionally doubled and sometimes wholly omitted, formed the 

 only really characteristic and at all times mimistakable part of 

 the song. It was a shrill, slightly tremulous squeal or crow, 

 given with exceeding emphasis and vigor and reminding us by 

 turns of the rolling chirrup which a chipmunk makes just as he 

 dives into his hole, of the sudden outcry of a half-grown chicken 

 when it is pecked by one of its companions, or of the crow of a 

 young rooster. Near at hand it seemed louder than the kic-kic 

 notes but the latter carried much the further — sometimes to a 

 distance of fully half-a-mile when the air was damp and still — 

 whereas the crow, under the most favorable conditions, could not 

 be heard at more than half that distance. 



That the notes just described constitute what, from the stand- 

 point of the ornithologist, must be regarded as a true song seems 

 obvious from the fact that they were uttered at such frequent and 

 regular intervals, often for hours at a time. Indeed, the bird 

 wdien engaged in producing them could not well have found 

 opportunity for doing anything else. It is probable, however, 

 that he often changed his position during his brief periods of 

 silence, for his voice varied more or less in intensity or volume 

 with successive utterances, the increase and decrease in volume 

 being usually graduated but sometimes rather abrupt. Ordinarily 

 every fourth or fifth repetition came especially loud and full but 

 occasionally a particularly distinct utterance immediately suc- 

 ceeded an exceptionally faint one. Perhaps the bird while sing- 

 ing faced in different directions, making a quarter turn after each 

 series of calls, as the Woodcock does while peeping ; or he may 

 have been merely running about in the grass calling at times in 

 open spaces, at others among or beneath herbage sufficiently 

 dense to muffle the sound of his voice. The general effect of his 

 song, while certainly far from musical, was not unpleasing and the 

 terminal crow had a delightfully merry or rather joyous quality as 

 if the bird, reveling in the rare June weather amid the lush grass 

 of his favorite meadows, were altogether too happy to contain 

 himself. Indeed, there were times when this note, rising above 

 the croaking of innumerable frogs and the rustling of wind among 

 the reeds, sounded like a shrill, exultant little cheer. 



