204 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG 



butcher-bird be quick, O, O whitethroats' alarm 

 great tit (cry), O, O end." l The cry named after 

 the " golden plover " occurs elsewhere : I so name 

 it on the authority of a friend. I have never seen 

 the bird which utters it, having heard it at night ; 

 but I know it as well as I know the bark of my 

 brother's dog a constant companion. On 8th 

 July 1891 I heard a thrush at Stratford Park, 

 Stroud, exactly reproduce the song of a neighbouring 

 tree-pipit, even to the exact pitch of the notes. 



The thrush often reproduces the musical intervals 

 uttered by one bird, but in the tone of another. 

 Thus, it will whistle notes in the interval of a 

 third, like a cuckoo, or it may utter them in a 

 rough voice like that employed to imitate the 

 crow. There seems to be no end to the versatility 

 of the thrush in this particular. Sometimes, also, 

 it will associate certain imitations and repeat them 

 several times in the same order. Thus, at Bath, 

 on 3rd April 1892, a thrush was persistent in 

 reproducing the hawk-alarm of the house-sparrow 

 (a sound somewhat like the word tour), immediately 

 followed by the cry tell of the same bird ; the 

 result was a prolonged repetition of tour tell, tour 



1 I found a knowledge of phonography very useful for recording 

 songs, on account of the pace at which a record may by this means 

 be made. 



