18S4.J BiCKNELL on llic Singing 0/ Birds. ?\^S 



winter and leads us to look sprin^jward, seems to be as quicklv felt 

 by this hardened and cruel bird as by the most tender species 

 which it is wont to make its victims. An luiusually vocal bird 

 was observed on February 10, 1877 — a morning when winter 

 seemed quietly relaxing from long-continued severity. Perched in 

 the sunlight, on the topmost spray of a tall oak, on an eminence 

 commanding an expanse of changing landscape, it was alternate- 

 ly singing and preening its beautiful plumage. The song was a 

 medley of varied and rather disconnected articulations, an occa- 

 sional low warble always being quickly extinguished b}' harsh 

 notes, even as the bird's gentle demeanor would soon be inter- 

 i-upted by some deed of cruelty. 



It has been claimed that the Butcher Bird attracts birds and 

 small animals by imitating their cries, thus making them its easy 

 prey. It is true that notes similar to the screaming of small 

 birds and the squealing of mice are interspersed through its song; 

 but they are uttered without method, and sometimes actually in 

 conjunction with the most harsh and startling sounds of which 

 the bird is capable. 



Hirundo erythrogastra. Barn Swallow. 



An almost universal misconception regards the Swallows as a 

 tribe of songless birds. But the Barn Swallow has as true claims 

 to song as many species of long-established recognition as song- 

 birds. Its song is a low chattering trill, suggestive of that of the 

 Long-billed Marsh Wren, but often terminating wdth a clear, liquid 

 note with an accent as of interrogation, not vnilike one of the 

 notes of the Canary. This song is wholly distinct from the quick, 

 double-syllabled note which so constantly escapes the bird durino- 

 flight; nor is it, as may be supposed, produced by the comming- 

 ling of the notes of many individuals in a species highly greo-ari- 

 ous. I have heard it repeated many times from single birds, 

 often when they were perched alone on telegraph wires. It is 

 also uttered during flight, and continues into August. 



Hirundo bicolor. White-bellied Swalloav. 



The song of this Swallow is hardly more than a chatter. This 

 is to.be heard as late in the year as the bird is with us. Its ordi- 

 nary notes are less sharp and rapid than those of the Barn Sw allow. 



