FEEDING AND CARE OF THE YOUNG. 71 



NOTE OF ALARM' OF BRONZE- WING. 



A male bronze-wing that was sitting on the nest, over the 1 -day-old young, saw a cat 

 run along the sidewalk; the bird stretched his neck at full length, nearly vertically, and 

 held his head a little aslant, with one eye fixed steadfastly on the cat. The female was 

 on the floor and unable to see the cat. The male gave a very low short muffled note of 

 "anxiety" or "alarm." The female was at once alert, with feathers held tightly, as if 

 danger was expected. The note is not only low and short, but quite smooth, no vibration 

 being noticeable. Geopelia humeralis gives a similar note on like occasions, but it is not 

 quite smooth, is just a little hoarse, though not loud. The note is uttered by a short, 

 quick expulsion of air with the "beak closed." All species seem to understand this 

 alarm-note, no matter which species gives it. 



FLOCK WHISTLE OF YOUNQ BRONZE-WING. 



The young bronze-wing has another note a soft, pleasant twitter that is hard to 

 describe. It almost continuously gives this note when it is on the ground, and I incline 

 to think that it facilitates the movements of the family and enables them to keep together. 

 These birds spend all their time running about on the ground, and some such note would 

 enable the old birds to keep track of the young. This mellow whistle of the young reminds 

 one of the notes emitted by the Bartramian sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda). Chapman 

 describes, in his Birds of Eastern North America (p. 168), this sandpiper's note, when 

 flushed, as "a soft bubbling whistle." (R 28, R33.) 



1 Descriptive material may be found in Chapter X. 



