262 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiv. 



REVIEW. 



The Relation of Song to the Nesting of Birds. By J. P. Burkitt. Irish 

 Naturalist, January 192 1. 



In a very interesting article with the above title, Mr. J. P. Burkitt refers 

 to various aspects of the song and nesting of birds, but his main point 

 " is to show that with at least a certain number of well-known songsters, 

 mating seems to put a brake or a stopper on the song ; and that we should 

 have comparatively little song from them were it not for unmated males 

 and the recrudescence of song where there are second broods." He 

 has made careful observations on individuals of eight species, namely, 

 Chaffinch, Yellowhammer, Chiffchaff, Willow-Wren, Lesser Redpoll, 

 Sedge-Warbler, Grasshopper-Warbler and Whitethroat ; all his 

 observations are near Enniskillen. His conclusions are that the 

 Yellowhammer almost ceases to sing after it has got a mate ; the 

 Chaffinch, Willow- W'ren, Grasshopper- Warbler and Whitethroat when 

 the female begins to sit, that only the Chiffchaff and Redpoll sing much, 

 or at all, after the young are hatched ; and that, consequently, the vast 

 amount of bird song is from birds before mating, or from mateless males 

 that may sing on right through the summer till the moult. He also 

 suggests that the Redpoll's flying trill is not strictlj' comparable to 

 other bird songs. This leaves only the Chiffchaff as an exception to 

 his general rule. He concludes that " one common notion about 

 bird song seems, at least in these cases, to be just the one thing we can 

 safely deny, namely, that the male sings chiefly to please a sitting 

 mate." This is certainly a remarkable conclusion, but Mr. Burkitt 

 has evidently only reached his conclusions after careful and systematic 

 observation. 



It would be interesting if ornithologists in other districts could make 

 careful observations on individual birds of various species in the coming 

 season. For my own part, I do not feel able either to support or to 

 criticize his conclusions, though I confess when first I read of his obser- 

 vations on the song of the Whitethroat and other birds I was rather 

 incredulous. Can it be that his rule is liable to exceptions where a 

 species is so abundant that the males are constantly coming in contact 

 with their neighbours ? I can scarcely believe, for example, that " all 

 Willow- Wrens singing on loudly and steadily are mateless " in some 

 of the copses and birch-clad commons of Kent and Sussex ; and I 

 have seen a Reed-Warbler in a Romney Marsh reed-bed where the 

 birds were swarming, with its beak full of food, in full moult, singing 

 lustily in mid-July. H.G.A. 



LETTERS. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE CUCKOO. 

 To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — Residing within a mile or so of the locality whence these 

 observations have been recorded {antea, p. 218, etc.), and this district 

 being so well known to me, I have not infrequently been asked as 

 to any opinions that I may have respecting same. 



If, as I am given to understand, Mr. Edgar Chance has been collecting 

 in addition all the eggs of the Cuckoo that he can obtain from a 



