308 SNODGRASS AND HELLER 



elongated notes sounding somewhat like ch'ee IJ'. They uttered 



this note a number of times while observed but always either when 

 both flew to the nest together or when one was at the nest and the 

 other flew to it. It was impossible to observe whether at such times 

 both birds uttered the note or only one, but two voices seemed to be 

 distinguishable. 



The birds have a common note that they utter on ordinary occa- 

 sions, such as when they are hopping about in the bushes or when 

 feeding. This is a short, low simple c^/c/J-like sound. Besides this 

 they have another, a more lengthened note, having a sort of broken 

 sound. This they use on more special occasions — it is almost always 

 heard when a male flies after a female, apparently both of them utter- 

 ing it. 



The song of the birds at Iguana Cove was first observed during the 

 latter part of December. At this time they were occupied with nest 

 building and numerous unfinished and many completed nests were 

 found, but only a few of the latter contained eggs. A very common 

 song resembled the teur^wJe song of Tagus Cove, it being bisyllabic, 

 having a vowel sound in the first syllable resembling a German um- 

 lauted u and in the second a long e. The song may be represented 

 thus : tiil'-ivee, tiil'-wee, the sets being generally uttered twice, often 

 three times, in succession. Sometimes the second syllable was repeated 

 several times ; one bird was heard singing thus : tul-twec-twee-twee, 

 tul-twee-twee-tivee. Another song heard resembled the first de- 

 scribed, but had the accent on the second syllable : til-tee' , tii-lee' . 

 Again the vowel sounds were reversed and the song sounded like 

 fee'-twiir, tTe'-tiviir. The same variations take place with this ; 

 one bird was heard singing fee' -twur-tivur-twur^ fee'- etc., in each 

 set of this song, the accent being given to the first syllable. An- 

 other bird sang a song of two syllables, in each of which the vowel 

 had the zi'-sound, and the first syllable was much prolonged, thus: 

 til ... . ii-t-wiir. This was uttered either by itself as an entire song 

 or was followed by iivee-twee-tivee. 



These varieties of song were all uttered by males in full black 

 plumage, the usual breeding age dress. However, a brown-plumaged 

 bird was observed singing a song resembling tii . . . . ul . . . . l-tvee, 

 the first syllable being greatly prolonged, although varying consider- 

 ably in length, while the second was shorter and abruptly higher in 

 pitch. Another brown-plumaged bird was observed acting exactly 

 after the manner of a breeding male. He was rapidly and excitedly 

 uttering a song somewhat like tii-ivee' , tii-wee', tti-ivee\ and was amor- 



