230 Aurv Morning Awakening, [adtU 



so that that amount should be added to Mr. Wright*s figures to 

 reduce them to the local time. The time of earliest sunrise is 4.07 

 (Standard) at Boston, ami. as Mr. Wright states. 4.02 at Jefferson, 

 where hi-- observations were made. 



In the first place I find it necessary to differ with Mr. Wright 

 as to tin 1 order of the first throe species on his list, or rather as to the 

 inch rank he accords the first two, the Song Sparrow (Melospiza 

 melodia melodia) and the Chipping Sparrow (SpizeUa passerina 

 passerina), which, so far as my observations show, belong farther 

 down. He places these two sparrows before the Robin {Planesti- 

 cut mtgratorius migratorius) on the ground that though "the lusty 

 character of the Robin's song from the time of its beginning 

 throughout its first fort\-ti\o minutes' period of singing constitutes 

 it the conspicuous early singer ami makes it appear to he the earli- 

 est singer of all." yet " the Song Sparrow and the (."hipping Sparrow 

 both preeede the Robin in a few earlier expressions of song" Mr. 

 Wright admits that both these speeies occasionally awake and 

 sing in the night, but he says that this early morning singing - 

 this ante-Robin singing is differentiated from the casual night 

 singing by the fact that a seeond. third, and perhaps fourth bird 

 Follows the tir-^t singer. 'This reasoning does not seem to me con- 

 clusive, because, for one thing. 1 am pretty sure I have heard the 

 same thing happen in the middle of the night, and moreover it 

 seems natural to infer that if a considerable period of silence 

 ensues after a first song, then the bird has dropped off to sleep again 

 and has not experienced his actual "morning awakening.' It may 

 be pertinent to eall attention to the fact that Mr. Wright's earliest 

 time of beginning to listen was 2.35 and his earliest Song Sparrow 

 2. 10 and Chipping Sparrow 2.45. If he had himself got out a quar- 

 ter of an hour earlier, might he not have heard the two sparrows 

 correspondingly earlier also": I also suspect that Mr. Wright's 

 Jefferson Song Sparrows and Chippies may be somewhat excep- 

 tionally wakeful birds. My own notes record not a single day when 

 the Chippy began before the Robin and only one occasion when 

 the Song Sparrow preceded the Robin and at the same time came 

 near enough to get into the list at all. That was on June 11. L885, 

 at West Roxbury, Mass.. when the Song Sparrow was heard at 2 55 



