112 General Notes. [£* 



Averaging the eight definite records of the Song Sparrow's complete 

 awakening included in the foregoing notes, I make it 29f minutes (practi- 

 cally an even half-hour) before sunrise. The average of nine records of the 

 earliest song heard from this species is 45 minutes before sunrise. On eight 

 mornings one or more Song Sparrow songs preceded at varying intervals 

 the full awakening, and on three of these occasions the early songs pre- 

 ceded the Robin, but the average of these earliest songs is about 9 minutes 

 later than the Robin, while the average of what I regard as the actual 

 awakening of the Song Sparrow is 15 minutes later still. The situation is 

 complicated a little by the fact that my Robins and Chipping Sparrows 

 seem to be later risers than the average of their respective species. The 

 average of the six definite records I got here in these two years for the 

 height of the season (excluding the April 10 record) is only 53f minutes 

 before sunrise, nearly 10 minutes later than the average obtained from my 

 former observations. My Chipping Sparrows, too, with an average of 36 

 minutes before sunrise for ten mornings, are some 10 minutes later than my 

 former average. On the other hand, I find that my Crows wake unusually 

 early for this species, the average of eight records made in 1912, 1913, and 

 1914 being 42 minutes before sunrise, while my previous average from 

 various localities was 34 minutes before sunrise, precisely the same as Mr. 

 H. W. Wright's latest Jefferson, N. H., average (' The Auk,' XXX, 529, 

 October, 1913). This may be because my post of observation is near a 

 nesting-ground of Crows, but, taken in connection with the lateness of my 

 Robins and Chipping Sparrows, it suggests that local or individual variation 

 may account for all such differences. In the case of the Song Sparrow, 

 however, my new notes, made with the matter of nocturnal singing defi- 

 nitely in mind, show a much greater difference, and though local or indi- 

 vidual variation may play some part in it, I am moderately certain that 

 it is chiefly to be accounted for by the more careful exclusion of night songs. 

 These observations strengthen my conviction that the Robin's well- 

 established reputation as an early bird cannot be successfully assailed by 

 either of the two sparrows in question. As to the four other birds which 

 Mr. Wright in his paper of October, 1913, ranks ahead of the Robin, it 

 may be pertinent to call attention to the fact that three of them — the 

 Wood Pewee, Oven-bird, and White-throated Sparrow — are known to be 

 addicted to this same habit of nocturnal singing. Mr. Wright gives good 

 evidence that, on some occasions at least, the Wood Pewee deserves the 

 high rank he gives it, but as to the Oven-bird and the White-throated 

 Sparrow the evidence is not quite so clear. The flight-song of the Oven- 

 bird, is, so far as my experience goes, peculiarly an afternoon and evening 

 performance. I have heard it before noon, but only on rare occasions, 

 and if I heard it in the very early morning I should instinctively regard it 

 as left over from the evening before rather than belonging to the coming 

 day. The White-throated Sparrow has been called the " Nightingale of 

 the North." The last time I heard its morning awakening on its breeding- 

 ground was on August 8, 1913, on Sunapee Mountain, N. H. It then sang 



