142 THE STARLINGS 



notes, the most oft-repeated being given as "kritsch" and "tschirr." 

 Certainly neither of these have a musical sound, and as the remain- 

 ing notes "etsch, ritzs, swrr" and "tzm" have every appearance of 

 being equally unharmonious, more need hardly have been said. But 

 in order to remove any lingering respect the reader might still 

 entertain for the vocal efforts of the rosy-pastor, he ends by com- 

 paring them to the squeaking of a pack of rats, squabbling and 

 fighting in a corner. 1 The pastor himself, however, is not troubled 

 by any doubts as to the merits of his song. Nor which is more 

 important is his mate. Indeed she will occasionally join her notes 

 to his. 



The call- and other notes of the species have been described 

 in some detail by Petenyi. 2 The call-note in flight is a harsh " schrrr- 

 tschorr-tschorr-scherr I " A different note is ascribed to the birds left 

 behind, themselves not ready or inclined to fly : " tschrr intsch-schor- 

 intschf" On perching, a rapid "schrrr-tschrrr-detschow-tschrrr-dtzrrr," 

 or often a still more energetic " schweurenty-sclieurenty ! " The fear- 

 note is, according to Naumann, " tzschwirr ! " probably the above 

 "tschirr." The young are credited with the noises "squer" and 

 "kweek" It will be seen that nearly all these notes enter into the 

 song. Further study may reduce them to fewer elements, for some 

 of the syllabled variations are so slight that they possibly represent 

 differences in force or pitch. But these are difficulties that must 

 wait till the science of phonetics has come to include within its 

 sphere the speech of birds. 



1 Op. tit., iv. p. 23. 2 Ornithologische Fragmente. 



