410 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THE AUTUMN SONG OF BIRDS. 
By Cuarurs A. WItcHELL. 
THE songs of birds are worth investigating; but before 
progress can be made in the knowledge of the why and wherefore 
of these songs, we must ascertain how and when they occur. 
The last particular is especially important. It is very well to 
attribute the songs of birds to an erotic origin; but that will 
hardly account for the Robin and Starling recommencing in 
July or the first few days of August. Nor will it account for 
autumnal songs which are preceded by a period of silence (e.g- 
the Chiffchaff), or which are followed by a silence, which is not 
the case with the Robin and Starling. The September songs of 
Willow Wren and Chiffchaff are so exceedingly few and far 
between, as compared with the spring songs, that they may very 
probably proceed from birds that did not breed in spring, or 
whose nests were destroyed. 
My particular reason for calling attention to this theme is 
that my own observations seem to conflict with some other 
records. ‘This may be due to the fact that I have always been 
‘“‘an early bird”; while other observers with less exacting 
avocations may be more of midday or evening observers. When 
articled and subsequently in a practice at Stroud, where most of 
my observations were made, I never loafed after birds during 
office hours, but was out on nearly half the fine mornings from 
6 or 6.30 till 9 o’clock a.m. 
In a paper on the autumn song of birds (Zool. 1894, p. 410) 
Mr. O. V. Aplin says that the Willow Wren (after being silent 
from mid-June) strikes up again about the second week in 
August. The words “strike up” are, however, also applied to 
the Robin and Starling in November or October. Mr. Aplin 
has assured me that the remark does not, in the case of the latter 
birds, mean commencing to sing, but the employment of a new 
style of song. As, however, in the same paper he has a special 
reference to the Starling as singing in October (why October, 
