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A Catbird's Musical Ability 



A Catbird who chose our back yard as 

 his home during the past summer has 

 interested me on several occasions by his 

 attempts at imitation. 



One noon, as I came in at the back door, 

 I heard a Canary singing, and wondered 

 whose song it could be that I could hear so 

 plainly. I came into the house, but curiosity 

 got the better of me and I had to go back 

 to investigate. There was my Canary, 

 perched on a lawn-seat, dressed in dark 

 drab instead of yellow, singing as a three- 

 months-old Canary would sing. There 

 were no rough notes in his song, such as 

 are usually heard when the Catbird tries to 

 imitate; but he stopped short of the full 

 melody and left me with that aggravating 

 feeling one has when the final measure of 

 any musical composition is left off on ac- 

 count of an interruption^ 



Another day, I heard what started to be 

 my Rose-breasted Grosbeak's familiar sen- 

 tences, and I opened my eyes to see him. 

 Just then that squawk, so familiar to those 

 who are acquainted with the Catbird, came 

 out in the middle of his imitation, and I 

 said, "No, you don't fool me. The Gros- 

 beak never puts in any such discords. His 

 notes are all harmonious and pure tone. 

 You will have to do better than that." He 

 finished just as the Grosbeak does, and 

 that one rough squawk was all there was to 

 tell me it was not the Grosbeak. 



Memorial Day, a hand - organ came 

 along. That was his chance. The hand- 

 organ was putting in its best efforts on 

 some rattle-te-bang music, which was too 

 much for the poor Catbird; he must try 

 anyway — do it or die. So he struck in. A 

 few of the notes he got right, but more of 

 them he did not, for in his haste to keep up 

 to the time he put in almost anything to 

 fill up the measures. He had this to com- 

 fort him anyway, — he did not let that tor- 

 menting hand-organ come out ahead. His 



(i 



time was as good as the organ's, — accent, 

 evenness of beat, rests and all. I have not 

 seen much of him for several weeks now, 

 but presume he has been attending the 

 music festival which has been in progress. 

 — Emily B. Pellet, Worcester, Mass. 



The Warbling Vireo a Nest Singer 



The account of the singing of a War- 

 bling Vireo from its nest, in the September- 

 October, 1901, Bird-Lore, almost exactly 

 describes a similar experience of my own 

 last summer, which surprised me greatly, 

 it seemed so unusual. It would be inter- 

 esting to know whether these two incidents 

 are exceptions, or whether they merely show 

 the habit of the species. 



It was at New Russia, Essex county, 

 New York. The nest was in a maple tree, 

 bordering the road in front of the house. 

 After sitting had begun it was noticed (on 

 June 1) that at intervals the singing of 

 the Warbling Vireo was stationary for some 

 minutes near the nest. The nest was 

 watched more closely, and soon one of my 

 class discovered that one of the birds sang 

 while brooding, and the other did not. By 

 advancing with caution we could stand 

 directly beneath the nest and see the little 

 bill open to pour forth the song. The 

 music was not so continuous w-hile the 

 singer was thus under inspection, for he 

 had to stop often to cock his head and turn 

 his bright eye inquiringly down upon the 

 listener below. But when undistracted by 

 a sight of his audience he repeated the 

 strain with almost perfect regularity once in 

 Jive seconds ! Once, when he was timed, 

 this was kept up for five minutes. This 

 period was about the usual length of his 

 sitting, and then his mate entered the tree 

 with little scolding notes, a small form 

 dashed through the air to a distant row of 

 trees, leaving a trail of song behind, and 

 silence fell in the maple tree. 



It was natural to conclude that the singer 



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