Cries of the Day and Night 



A robin utters this call hundreds of times every 

 day, in one accent or another, and neither the 

 other robins nor their feathered neighbors seem 

 to pay any attention to it ; but when a red squirrel 

 comes plundering a nest, and the mother robin 

 sends forth the same pip-pip with a different 

 intonation, then the response is instantaneous. The 

 alarm spreads swiftly over wood and field ; clamor 

 uprises, and birds of many species come rushing 

 in from all directions; not because they have 

 heard that Meeko is again killing young robins 

 (at least, it does not seem so to me), but because 

 excitement is afoot, and they are bound to join 

 it or find out about it before they can settle down 

 comfortably to their own affairs. 



There is an interesting way by which you 

 may test this contagion of excitement for yourself. 

 Hide at the edge of the woods or in any other bird 

 neighborhood in the early morning, preferably at 

 a season when every nest has eggs or fledglings 

 in it; press two fingers against your lips and draw 

 the breath sharply between them, repeating the 

 squeaky cry as rapidly as possible. The sound 

 has a peculiarly exciting quality even to human 

 ears (twice have I seen men run wildly to answer 

 it), and birds come to it as boys to a fire alarm. 

 In a few moments you may have them streaming 

 in from the four quarters of bird world, all highly 



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