Old Friends and New 261 
sonality in birds, see how the manner of 
the wood thrush or the hermit accords with the 
character of their songs, and how plainly the 
voice of the kingbird agrees with his character. 
Catbirds and chickadees express themselves 
to me—their bird personality that is—quite 
as plainly as some people do. They sing—or 
say—just what I would expect them to. 
But what they say is what all catbirds and all 
chickadees sing, or say; it isa family look, a 
family manner, a family speech. 
When I go West and find the spurred towhee 
scratching like his cousin the chewink, the 
recognition of this family trait puts me on 
easy footing with him at once. So the 
mountain chickadee, the plumbeous gnat- 
catcher, and the red-backed junco remind me 
by their family peculiarities that I have seen 
their Eastern cousins act or look the same 
way a thousand times; and Palmer’s or the 
crissal thrasher cause me to reflect when I 
observe their mannerisms in singing and their 
apparent affectations, what true thrasher 
characteristics these are. Western gold- 
finches and grosbeaks have not only the 
family bill but the family idiosyncracies as 
well, and how quickly the flycatchers, where- 
ever you meet them, announce by their 
