V °!'8^ ni ] Merriam, Nesting Habits of Pkainofepla nitens. ?c) 



until he was nearly through building did he discover that it was 

 easier to slow up in time to fly down to the nest. 



I once saw an odd flight. The bird flew out horizontally 

 with its high crest erect ; the effect was very droll. Indeed, the 

 Phainopepla's expression changes as much with the position of 

 the crest as the Waxwing's does. Ordinarily the high crown gives 

 the bird a dignified, distinguished air, but when lowered in anger 

 it adds a sudden menace as he darts at his enemy. 



In watching the birds at their nests, I found that they had 

 a number of calls. The commonest was uttered in the same tone 

 by both male and female, and was like the call of a young Robin. 

 In giving it, they flashed their tails, showing the square corners 

 conspicuously. The male also had a harsh cry of warning, drawn 

 out like ca-rack or ca-ra-ack. In addition, he had a scold and a 

 note suggesting the Meadowlark. The Phainopepla's ordinary 

 song had some weak squeaking notes, but it also had phrases of 

 rich blackbird quality, recalling the o-ka-lee of the marshes. < )ne 

 of these was a high keyed whee-dle-ak. Other parts could be 

 roughly syllabified as kit-er-ah-at and cher-nack'-ec. The song in 

 flight was bright and animated. I once heard a bird break out as 

 he came down from a sally into the air, and he often flew away 

 from the nest singing. Sometimes I thought he even sang in the 

 nest. Of the other birds heard when listening to the Phainopepla, 

 none were so common as the Wren-Tit {Chamea fas data henshawi) 

 and there could be no sharper contrast than that between the 

 slow, distinct, descending scale of the Wren-Tit and the rapid runs 

 and jumbled notes of the Phainopepla. Dr. Coues speaks of the 

 evening song as a 'requiem,' and Professor Evermann dwells upon 

 its plaintive quality. As I never watched the birds at dusk, I 

 never heard this song, but the character of the day songs was 

 markedly cheerful. Indeed, to me the Phainopepla's song was 

 pleasing in spite of its jumbled notes, not merely because of the 

 flute-like quality of some of its tones, but pre-eminently because 

 of the bright, vivacious way in which it was uttered. However, 

 with these general characters, even in the day time the song 

 varied greatly, ranging from the soft lay which the bird warbled 

 to himself as he sat in the sun to the rich and tender musical 

 outburst with which he greeted his mate. 



