154 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 473. 



THE INI-IERITAjS'CE OF SONG IN PASSERINE BIRDS. 

 REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE SONG 

 OF HAND-REARED BOBOLINKS AND RED- 

 WINGED BLACKBIRDS (DOLICHONYX 

 ORYZIVORUS AND AGELAIOS 

 PHOENICEUS). 



During the past spring (1903) I secured a 

 brood of bobolinks and two broods of red- 

 winged blackbirds. These young nestlings 

 were carefully reared, and, while allowed to 

 hear many other kinds of birds sing, were not 

 placed where it was believed that they could 

 hear the songs of their own species. The re- 

 sults about to be described have been based 

 on continuous observation, in the case of the 

 blackbirds for six weeks, and for the bobolinks 

 three weeks. Care has been taken to have 

 competent judges, well acquainted with the 

 song of both species, listen to the song of 

 these birds without seeing the singers. In no 

 instance was the song recognized; one listener 

 ascribed the song of two red-winged black- 

 birds to the brown thrasher {Toxostoma 

 rufum), and was wholly unable to form an 

 opinion as to what birds were singing when 

 listening to the performance of two bobolinks. 

 It should be stated that there were but two 

 males of each of the species in question from 

 the broods that had been reared. 



The song of the bobolinks is loud and bril- 

 liant as well as sustained; that of the red- 

 winged blackbirds is even of greater volume 

 and may be best described as continuous. 



A word seems essential as to the call-notes 

 of the two kinds of birds in question. I have 

 failed to distinguish anything that resembles 

 the call-note of the bobolink in its wild state, 

 nor any sound that emanates from the two 

 representatives of this species that are under 

 observation which could be referred to bobo- 

 links in a wild state. The interval of the 

 notes and the duration of the song seem, how- 

 ever, not unlike those of wild bobolinks. One 

 of the young birds, moreover, has been noticed 

 both by myself and other observers attemp- 

 ting with a marked degree of success to sing 

 the continuous rolling warble with its rising 

 and falling inflection that characterizes the 

 Hartz Mountain roller canary. 



The call-note of the red-wing blackbird is 



clearly distinguishable in the two red-wing 

 blackbirds under observation, but is the only 

 sound that might be referred to that species. 

 The song of these two birds seems to be made 

 up of a composite jumble wherein robin and 

 thrush-like notes of great clearness and vol- 

 ume predominate. The duration of the song 

 is not marked by any particular break, the 

 performance generally lasting from five to 

 ten minutes. The clear robin and thrush-like 

 notes are connected by fainter warbles and 

 lisps, the whole being continuous. 



The blackbirds were taken during the first 

 weeks in June and were probably about a 

 week old. They began to sing early in 

 September, and the only interruption was an 

 interval of four or five days when they 

 changed from the liberty of a room where they 

 could fly about to two large room cages. 



The bobolinks were taken on the twelfth day 

 of June and were much younger than the 

 blackbirds, being not more than four days 

 old. They have been kept all the time to- 

 gether in a large cage, and have not known 

 the freedom of a flying room. They began to 

 sing about the first of November, and in a few 

 days could be heard in song at almost any 

 time during daylight. 



William E. D. Scott. 



Princeton, N. J., 

 November 30, 1903. 



THE U. 8. NAVAL OBSERVATORY* 

 The astronomical force has been grad- 

 ually diminished year by year, first by the 

 detachment of a number of line officers 

 who were formerly assigned positions as ob- 

 servers, and more recently by the detach- 

 ment of several professors of mathematics for 

 duty at the Naval Academy. This not only 

 left the observatory short-handed, but made 

 frequent rearrangements of the personnel 

 necessary. Each new assignment to astro- 

 nomical duty retards the work, breaks up its 

 continuity, and diminishes the output. It is 

 such changes as these among subordinate 

 officers who have special work to do that pro- 



* From tlie reports of the Superintendent Eear- 

 Admiral C. M. Chester, for the year ending June 

 30, 1903. 



