40 THE O. & O. SEMI-ANNUAL. 
Towards the last of July or the first of August, the American 
Goldfinch makes his appearance. His song resembles that of our 
household canary, except the bell notes are not so full, and peo- 
ple not familiar with him often mistake him for an escaped canary. 
It sings most in the early morning, but its call-notes may be heard 
all day. These latter are of several varieties. The most com- 
mon are represented below. 
First—‘‘chee-pee, chee-pee,”’ with a slight falling inflection. 
Second—‘‘chu-ee, chu-ee,” with a rising inflection. 
Third—‘‘par,-chee-chu-choo,” with a falling inflection and a 
slight rest after the first syllable. 
The last is by far the most common, being uttered both while 
flying and while at rest, but more frequently while flying. 
The notes of birds vary greatly at different seasons and under 
different circumstances. For example; of the seven varieties of 
the Jay’s call; two seem to be used for a reason very similar 
to that which prompts a boy to whistle, (and with about the 
same success as far as music is concerned) ; two seem to be 
caressing and colloquial in character; one is a note of warning ; 
"one seems to express alarm merely, and the other seems to 
call others to the neighborhood of the bird uttering it. 
It is desirable to know if the notes of the sexes are the same or 
not, and whether the cries they utter are the same vawel or sylla- 
ble, with only a difference as to time and inflection of voice, or a 
different vowel or syllable. We are also endeavoring to learn if 
there is any similarity between the calls of different birds under 
the same circumstances, and how much one species understands 
the calls of another species. The note of a Jay or a Crow, for 
example, will put many other birds to flight, which take no notice 
of the ordinary calls of those birds, showing a knowledge of the 
meaning of the alarm note. 
It has long been known that if one imitates the cry of a bird in 
pain, it will bring many members of the feathery tribe within 
eyeshot, and if, as we stated in another part of this report, the 
call of the Chickadee be imitated it will have various effects ac- 
cording to the season of the year, as there explained. 
There are so many points to notice, and so much to observe 
that for the sake of similarity and unity of effort in studying bird- 
songs, we have prepared and to a certain extent already adopted 
