220 Moore, Least Satidpiper in the Magdalen Islands. [April 



Records of the flight songs of three of these brooding birds I 

 possess and each in its notes, progressions, and even time is totally 

 different from the others, and yet, without sight of the bird, I 

 would instantly recognize them as songs of the Least Sandpiper. 

 This is due to the fact that the quality of tone is constant in all 

 being pure and sweet, the tempo is always extremely fast, the notes 

 being delivered with great rapidity, and the pitch high. Trills 

 and rilns are characteristic and make an additional recognition- 

 quality. All of this is shown by the records which follow: 



No. 1 is the song of the marsh bird I caught, No. 2, the song of 

 the field bird, and No. 3 belongs to a bird I was compelled to shoot, 

 as described later. All three were rendered by incubating birds. 

 Songs No. 1 and 2 were heard on three or four occasions each, and 

 No. 2 was noted over and over again, both from the earth and the 

 sky, and I have no evidence to suggest that this bird or the other 

 two sang other songs than their own particular ones, or that they 

 varied them to any noticeable degree. After the young were out 

 of the nest the field bird did alternate with song No. 2, a long 

 repetition of two call-notes (Song record No. 4) as noticed later, 

 and changed from call-notes to song and from song to call-notes 

 without a second's break, and yet these call-notes were so distinctly 

 such, that they need not be considered in a discussion of the songs. 



Two marked qualities the songs possess and they are exhibited, in 

 one case more and in the other less, by the call-notes, that is they 

 are tremulous and they are pathetic. The former is most promi- 

 nent in the calls, but is at times present in the songs. On several 

 occasions they were rendered within a few feet of my ears and at 

 this close range trembled or quivered markedly. This tremulous 

 quality is precisely the best medium to convey anxiety and it was 

 most strongly present, when the brooding birds give evidence in 

 other ways of possessing that emotion; for instance, when the 

 marsh bird could not find her covered nest and when she found 

 my hand encircling her nest at the instant her first chick was 

 born. This quality was also conspicuous at the initial discovery 

 of each nest. In the flight songs, when delivered at a distance, 

 the tremulous effect could not be so easily distinguished, but when 

 they were given on the ground at moments of anxiety, they were 

 strongly charged with it. 



