74 Bird -Lore 



at least three-fourths of the surroundings either heavy forest or 

 wooded swamp. The date, May 12, and the locality southwestern 

 Indiana : Four Cardinals, three Indigo Buntings, numerous Ameri- 

 can Goldfinches, one White-eyed Vireo, one Maryland Yellowthroat, 

 one Field Sparrow, one Carolina Wren, one Tufted Titmouse, one 

 Gray-cheeked Thrush, one Yellow-hreasted Chat, one Louisiana Water 

 Thrush, one Red-eyed Vireo, and two Mourning Doves — in all thirteen 

 species, and at least twice that number of individuals. And here 

 is a list of birds heard singing together one day in June, about the 

 edge of a prairie in southern Illinois : Two Mockingbirds, one Brown 

 Thrasher, three Yellow-breasted Chats, one Warbling Vireo, one Bal- 

 timore Oriole, several Meadowlarks, numerous Dickcissels and Hen- 

 slow's and Grasshopper Sparrows, one Lark Sparrow, one Robin, one 

 Towhee, one Catbird, one Wood Thrush, one Ovenbird, one Summer 

 Tanager, several Tufted Titmice, one Red-eyed Vireo, one Bell's 

 Vireo, one White-eyed Vireo, one Cardinal, one Indigo Bunting, two 

 Maryland Yellowthroats, one Field Sparrow, and one Prairie Horned- 

 Lark — the latter a true Lark, singing while suspended in mid-air, 

 exactly in the manner of a Skylark ; in all, twenty-five species and 

 certainly not less than fifty individuals. Is such a rich medley of 

 bird music often, if ever, excelled in England ? It is true that 

 neither the Skylark nor the Nightingale nor the Song Thrush were 

 included, but they were each represented, and well represented, too ; 

 the first, if not by the Prairie Lark, whose manner of singing is 

 identical, but whose song is comparatively feeble, then by the 

 Meadowdark, of which Wilson — himself a Scotchman — says that, 

 although it "cannot boast the poivers of song" which distinguish the 

 Skylark, "yet in richness of plumage as well as sweetness of twice 

 * * * stands eminently its supe?-ior" (italics our own) ; the second 

 by the Mockingbird, whose song is unrivalled for its combination of 

 richness, variety, compass, volubility and vivacity ; and the third by 

 the Brown Thrasher, whose energetic, powerful and untiring melody 

 is said to closely resemble in modulation that of the Song Thrush. 

 Not less than half a dozen of the remaining species are songsters of 

 very pronounced merit, probably equaling, in one quality or another 

 of song, the best of European singers, excepting that celebrated trio, 

 the Nightingale, Song Thrush and Skylark. 



What Dr. Livingstone has said of African songsters applies equally 

 well to those of the eastern United States, where the summers are of 

 tropical character. "The birds of the tropics," says he, "have gen- 

 erally been described as wanting in power of song. I was decidedly 

 of opinion that this was not applicable to many parts of Londa, 

 though birds there are remarkably scarce. Here [on the Zambesi, 



