DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 23 



insult to accuse him of mispronouncing it! Miss Paddock * 

 realized this and, though noting a song similar to Mr. Mathews' 

 records, rendered it syllabically *'cher-t6a, cher-t^,a, cher-t6a," 

 instead of "teacher, teacher, teacher." So too did Dr. Witmer 

 Stone in his "Birds of New Jersey." The real problem after 

 all is not whether the bird sings "teacher" or "teacher," but 

 whether he begins his song with an accented or unaccented 

 musical note.* The solution of this problem may be found, 

 not only in my records, but also in the combined records of 

 Messrs. Mathews and Cheney, as well as in the perfectly ac- 

 curate observations of Messrs. Borroughs, Chapman and Thayer. 

 The bird does both of these things. Each individual places that 

 accent just where he sees fit and shifts it when he chooses, with 

 the result that some songs accent the first note throughout the 

 call (Recs. 4 and 10) and most the second (Recs. 1, 2 and 6)! 

 About fifteen per cent, do the former according to my records, 

 and this average is probably not far wrong. 



Most interesting of all, quite a few individuals shift the accent 

 in the middle of the song, stressing the second note of each 

 couplet during the first half and the first note during the sec- 

 ond. So that in the single performance of one Oven-bird we 

 have the solution of the problem which has caused so much 

 divergence of opinion! My best example of this is Rec. 5. 

 The break is represented syllabically at the end of the fourth 

 couplet for the benefit of those who are not familiar with mus- 

 ical notation. It would not be detected, except by a keen ear, 

 on account of the speed ( f^ = 200), with which the song is de- 

 livered, and yet it would produce an ambiguous effect upon the 

 listener' s attention. Indeed this shift of accent, as it may occur 

 unexpectedly at any point in the song, is a most confusing trick 

 and probably more responsible for the divergent report of so 

 many careful scientists than any other eccentric trick of this 

 most eccentric warbler. 



Despite the variability in the accent's point of attack, it is in 

 one sense the most constant quality of the call-song. It is always 



^Quoted in Chapman's " Warblers of North America," p. 224. 

 * Mr. Mathews in one record recognizes a supplementary initial grace note, 

 which I have detected but once. 



