VARIATIONS IN SONG 281 



ing a really captivating strain. The bird 

 seemed as much surprised as I was, as if he 

 had chanced upon it, and he repeated it for a 

 long time. 



The junco, a common bird in New England, 

 whose ordinary utterance is a simple trill, or 

 rapid repetition of one note, like that of the 

 chipping-sparrow, had, in one place where I 

 heard him, a second song, lower in tone and 

 of different quality altogether. And a chip- 

 ping-sparrow in the same place improved on 

 his song by interrupting the usual monoto- 

 nous trill with pauses of varying length, 

 which made it far more attractive. The ves- 

 per-sparrow has a varied song, and I once 

 heard one who produced a strange double- 

 note effect, the second much lower than the 

 first, and so nearly together that I could 

 hardly believe one bird uttered it. The song- 

 sparrow has a very extensive repertoire, as 

 noted elsewhere. I have heard and seen one 

 bird, perched in plain sight, give eight totally 

 different songs. Among this species, too, is 

 the greatest variety in degrees of excellence. 

 Some are almost equal to our finest songsters, 

 and I never heard two sing alike. 



