280 IN A LOG CAMP 



cies from one another. Very rarely, indeed, 

 does a bird repeat exactly the notes of an- 

 other of his family. 



The common robin varies his song indefi- 

 nitely. I have heard all grades of excellence, 

 as well as varieties of arrangement. One 

 bird I have known on the coast of Maine for 

 two consecutive years, who at a certain part 

 of his song sings what sounds like " id-i-ot ! 

 id-i-ot ! id-i-ot ! " so plainly that he has been 

 named after the writer who also makes that 

 the burden of his song (with apologies to 

 J. K. B.). 



More than this ; I have on two or three 

 occasions heard a robin evolve a new song, 

 or a new turn in an old one, which appeared 

 to give hmi great pleasure, for he stood in the 

 spot where it had seemed to strike him, and 

 repeated it many times, omitting all the rest 

 of his song, and after that introducing it into 

 his regular carol. At another time I was 

 electrified one morning by a strange new song, 

 a tender tremolo, and hastening out to see the 

 singer, found a robin who had adapted his 

 so-called " laugh," giving it in a soft, musical 

 tone and much higher key, and thus produc- 



