AN ECCENTRIC FINCH 251 



rows came about the door for crumbs, and 

 the Coast of Maine bird the song-sparrow 

 sang all day. So versatile, indeed, was this 

 dear little gray-coated brother that one hardly 

 needed other singers. In a few hours' study 

 that I gave to him, I recorded twenty-six dis- 

 tinctly different songs, and I have no doubt 

 he was capable of as many more. 



To this grove came also an eccentric pur- 

 ple finch. After executing the ordinary song 

 he would pause an instant and then add two 

 notes slurred together, almost exactly like 

 what is called the " pe wee-song" of the chick- 

 adee. It was quaint, rather slow in delivery, 

 and decidedly unique. 



In this retreat I heard also strange flicker 

 noises. I am coming to believe that the 

 woodpeckers, especially the flicker and the 

 sapsucker, are capable of the most peculiar 

 bird-sounds. I am sure we do not know half 

 their vocabulary. It is only when, as in this 

 place, there are few birds that one can trace 

 these vagaries to their source. 



I did not appreciate the particular attrac- 

 tions of this small paradise until well into 

 July, when the " rising generation " began to 



