CIRL BUNTINGS IN SUSSEX 71 



male back with her, if he has not already preceded 

 her. Then both birds are apt to give vent to their 

 alarm-cries (sometimes one or both will do so in 

 the neighbourhood of the nest before it is found, 

 and even if it contains nothing), though this is 

 not invariable, even with young in the home. The 

 cries are (1) a rattling tehrrr or trrrr almost always 

 the cock's prerogative ; (2) a whining, squeaky, 

 and rather indrawn week or weet, somewhat 

 reminiscent of, only weaker than, a cross between 

 the normal squeaky call of the Robin and that of 

 the Hedge-Sparrow ; and (3) a somewhat more for- 

 cible chit rarely heard. The first two notes need 

 special mention, seeing that it seems as if a repeti- 

 tion of number one constituted the song, and as if 

 the second were the sometime abrupt termination 

 to it. I took some little time thoroughly to 

 realize these facts (though with a good many other 

 species I have very quickly noticed that their calls, 

 or at least some of them, very often indeed pla^ 

 a prominent part in their song proper), since a 

 note repeated singly with an appreciable interval 

 between each utterance is apt to sound very 

 different to one and the same cry heard as a 

 quickly -iterated, tinkling " trill " ; while the week 

 is not at first prone to occur to you as forming any 

 element of the song at all. In any case, once the 

 song has been thoroughly mastered, the tehrrr cry 

 needs no comment ; but the squeaky week, when 

 utilized as a call, sounds rather different to what 



