A LABRADOR SPRING 



distinctness and frequency with which it calls 

 this incisive dissyllable in the spring. That 

 this constitutes the song with which it gives 

 vent to its emotions I think there can be no 

 question. Its call and conversational notes 

 are simple and short. Now our friend the 

 yellow-bellied flycatcher, whose arrival I have 

 just chronicled, a bird that is so abundant 

 on this southern Labrador coast after June 

 loth, has two distinct notes, one a soft, musical, 

 double whistle resembling that of its cousin 

 the wood pewee, and a harsh incisive je-let 

 very suggestive of the chebc of its other cousin 

 the least flycatcher. 



I had always supposed that this latter note 

 was its song, while the whistle was merely 

 a call-note, but some observations I made in 

 this Labrador spring induced me to change my 

 mind, and tended to throw it into some con- 

 fusion on the subject. Thus I occasionally 

 stole on a bird unawares who was repeating 

 the sweet, double whistle at frequent intervals. 

 Here I said to myself is the first stage in the 

 evolution of a song, which in the course of 

 ages may become similar to the delightful 

 musical composition of the wood pewee, when 



28 



