A LABRADOR SPRING 
distinctness and frequency with which it calls 
this incisive dissyllable in the spring. That 
this constitutes the song with which it gives 
vent to its emotions I think there can be no 
question. Its call and conversational notes 
are simple and short. Now our friend the 
yellow-bellied flycatcher, whose arrival I have 
just chronicled, a bird that is so abundant 
on this southern Labrador coast after June 
roth, has two distinct notes, one a soft, musical, 
double whistle resembling that of its cousin 
the wood pewee, and a harsh incisive je-let 
very suggestive of the chebéc of its other cousin 
the least flycatcher. 
I had always supposed that this latter note 
was its song, while the whistle was merely 
a call-note, but some observations I made in 
this Labrador spring induced me to change my 
mind, and tended to throw it into some con- 
fusion on the subject. Thus I occasionally 
stole on a bird unawares who was repeating 
the sweet, double whistle at frequent intervals. 
Here I said to myself is the first stage in the 
evolution of a song, which in the course of 
ages may become similar to the delightful 
musical composition of the wood pewee, when 
28 
