


RARER BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 509 
nest-structures widely different in appearance from those of 
their relatives residing in the interior. Every egg-collector 
is aware of the wide variations eggs of the same set may 
present, not only in the markings and in the tint of the 
ground color, but in size and form, and especially how wide 
these differences sometimes are in eggs of different birds of 
the same species. Also how different the behavior of the 
bird is when its nest is approached, in some cases the parents 
appearing almost utterly regardless of their own safety in 
their anxiety for their eggs or helpless young, while other 
parents of the same species quietly witness the robbing of 
their nest at a safe distance, and evince no extraordinary 
emotion. Those who have witnessed this, and have also 
Watched the behavior of birds when undisturbed in their 
quiet retreats, will grant, I think, the same diversity of . 
disposition and temperament to obtain among birds that is 
seen in man himself. 
In respect to the songs of birds, who that has attentively 
listened to the singing of different Robins, Wood Thrushes 
or Purple Finches, has not detected great differences in the 
Vocal powers of rival songsters of the same species? Dif- 
ferent individuals of some species, especially among the 
Warblers, sing so differently that the expert field ornitholo- 
gist is often puzzled to recognize them ; especially is this so 
m the Black and White Creeper (Mniotilia varia) and the 
Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendreca virens). But the 
strangest example of this sort I have noticed I think was the 
case of an Oriole (Icterus Baltimore) that I heard at Ips- 
Wich last season. So different were its notes from the com- 
Mon notes of the Baltimore that I failed entirely to refer 
them to that bird till I saw its author. So much, however, 
did it resemble a part of the song of the Western Meadow 
Lark (Sturnella magna; S. neglecta Aud.) that it at once 
not only recalled that bird, but the wild, grassy, gently un- 
dulating primitive prairie landscape where I had heard it, and 
With which the loud , clear, rich, mellow tones of this beau- 
