July 1, 1897.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



157 



BIRD-SONGS IN SUMMER. 



By Charles A. Witchell. 



AT the end of spring most song-birds cease from sing- 

 ing, and those which continue in song generally 

 omit certain accustomed notes from their strains. 

 The chaffinch does not complete his familiar 

 phrase ; tree pipit and lark fly less often while 

 singing. But the whitethroat indulges in a jerky song- 

 flight almost as much as usual, and the buntings are as 

 persistent in their monotonous efforts as at any time in the 

 spring. The swallow gives forth a seemingly light-hearted 

 strain which is equally general and unvaried (except in 

 duration) in the species. It diflers from many other songs 

 in that it seems not to express any pugnacious instinct. 

 In the summer months three or four male swallows will 

 often be singing from the same perch with as much 

 enthusiasm as though each was beside his mate. In this 

 species, even more than in most others, the dawn induces 

 the most frequent and prolonged utterance of the strain. 

 The sedge warbler, lark, thrush, and other birds which 

 imitate, are more mimetic than when first they sang this 

 year. 



The whitethroat, though not generally regarded as a 

 mimic, has now certainly become a proficient reproducer 

 of the cries of other species ; but in this feature individuals 

 differ, some preferring one model, some another, for 

 imitation. In July its repetitions of the jink of the 

 chafiinch are sometimes exactly like the original, and were 

 they not uttered in a hurried song they would be difficult 

 to identify as the notes of a warbler. Like the robin, also, 

 the whitethroat will repeat the double alarm- cry of the 

 swallow, but with a degree of accuracy varying in diiferent 

 individuals, though the seeming model is often copied 

 exactly. 



On the 18th of July last, in the fields near Eltham, the 

 note in question was uttered loudly, and was rapidly 

 repeated, at some little distance behind me, apparently 

 from the other side of a small meadow. I turned hastily, 

 expecting to enjoy the welcome sight of a hawk, which 

 enemy of the swallow is always announced in the double 

 cry. But there was no hawk — not even a swallow — near : 

 only a whitethroat singing his boisterous song while passing 

 in jerky flight along the line of the opposite hedge. The 

 bird commenced each strain with five or six repetitions of 

 the cry, with exactly the tone and accent of an angry 

 swallow. A minute later the whitethroat came across the 

 field, singing all the while, and passed directly overhead 

 into a thicket ; and when not more than fifteen feet above 

 me it repeated the imitation, with the same accuracy as 

 before. 



July is comparatively a silent month in birdland ; yet it 

 is one in which the cries of birds are of the most importance 

 to a naturalist, for now the alarms and call-notes — often 

 typically generic sounds — are uttered with the greatest 

 vehemence, since they are uttered to or for the young, and 

 therefore express intense emotions. The whitethroat's sharp 

 rhkk chick, very rapidly repeated, may be heard from every 

 hedge ; and the young will be noticed uttering the same 

 cry as an urgent call to their parents. The garden 

 warbler will be observed uttering a softer shack shack to its 

 fledghngs ; the blackcap has a hard tack tack -. and the 

 croak of the nightingale is sometimes spread out, as it 

 were, into disconnected ticking sounds resembling the 

 above-mentioned alarm of the whitethroat, but with a 

 more metallic timbre. There is a " family resemblance" 

 between these cries, and it may be further traced in some 

 allies of the birds which produce them. 



Young starlings still complain with a hoarse cah of the 

 same character as the alarm note which their parents have 

 so often uttered near the nest. The young missel-thrush 

 has the rattling cry with which its parents rated their 

 enemies — the jay and the sparrowhawk. Young nightin- 

 gales give no sign of having received vocal impressions 

 which will repeat in another generation the unrivalled music 

 of the species ; they croak harshly. Young chaffinches 

 will be heard calling chirrii, sometimes with tone so like 

 that of the young house sparrow that the bird cannot be 

 identified by its note alone. In short, most of the young 

 birds may now be heard repeating the alarm-cries and the 

 call-notes of their parents with never a song-note — a 

 circumstance proving that the former sounds are the first 

 to be acquired, and indicating that they are of the most 

 value as connecting species in a generic chain. 



The young of the great titmouse may now be heard 

 repeating a cry which is never uttered by the parent — a 

 sound suggesting the syllable kle, and more like a call-note 

 of the common butcher-bird than that of any tit, except, 

 perhaps, a long cry of alarm given by the marsh tit . It is 

 curious that this (jtiasi predaceous tit should inherit a tone 

 similar to that of the predaceous shrike. A somewhat 

 analogous instance is the peeting cry of the young cygnet, 

 like that of a duckling, no such note being given by the 

 adult swan. 



It has often been said that August is the most silent 

 month with song-birds ; but very early in that month the 

 town-bred starling returns to his favourite housetop, and 

 the robin quits a woodland home in favour of a farm 

 homestead or a suburban garden. The willow wren may 

 be heard till the middle of the month, singing, like the 

 chiffchaif, most often in the earliest hours of sunshine. 



The starling and robin do not now sing in exactly the 

 same way as in spring. The starling generally omits from 

 his strain those toneless squeals (love call-notes) which 

 concluded most of his phrases in spring ; and their absence 

 at this season suggests that the bird's pleasure in singing 

 is not dependent on erotic emotion : indeed, since the 

 starling's song is continued practically throughout the 

 year, this emotion cannot greatly influence it. 



In August and September the robin, on the other hand, 

 has the habit of uttering his call-squeak in a tone which — 

 so far as memory enables one to judge— is practically 

 identical with that of the springtime call to mate and 

 young ; and (what is the more interesting) the sound is 

 not only given once at one time, but it is often repeated 

 several times in succession at the commencement of a 

 song. Also, the note is at this time often associated with 

 the long, high, distress-note which was uttered so freiiuently 

 when the nest or the young were in peril. This association 

 of the two cries occurs most commonly at the beginning of 

 very brief songs, consisting of only a few notes — which 

 are therefore the more suggestive of the nature of the 

 original songs of the species. Singing of this elementary 

 character may be well observed on (^uiet autumnal days ; 

 but it is most noticeable at dawn on a foggy morning. 

 On this occasion the robin always gives the squeak for a 

 minute or two before singing. 



In most song-birds the variations in tone and musical 

 pitch occur towards the close rather than at the beginning 

 of the song, and in allied species the first parts of the songs 

 have most resemblance to common types. The frequent 

 utterance of call-notes in the simplest songs of the robin 

 is, therefore, important, and especially so because those 

 notes are represented by similar tones in some of the 

 robin's near relatives. The scientific value of these 

 similarities derives weight from the obvious fact that many 

 birds, when attempting to sing, lack the art to advance 



