The Singing of Birds. B. P. BiokneU. 



Troglodytes aedon. House Wren. 



From its arrival late in April until after midsummer the full 

 song of the House Wren is to be heard, and, though sometimes 

 ending with July, it is often continued through the first week of 

 August. August 15 is my latest date for the true nuptial song. 

 Usually before this time, when singing continues so late, the song 

 begins to change, and, becoming increasingly weaker and less 

 defined, may be extended beyond the middle of the month. With 

 the change of song a change of habits begins, and likewise 

 gradually progresses. The birds forsake the vicinity of dwell- 

 ings and their accessory buildings, of which for more than three 

 months they have been familiar and self-assertive occupants. To 

 the lay obsei-ver they have disappeared, but the experienced eye 

 will detect them inhabiting the rocks and shrubbery of wild and 

 unfrequented localities, often remote from human habitation. In 

 such places the autumn song is to be heard, though to one fainil- 

 iar only with the characteristic song of the earlier season its 

 authorshiiD would hardly be suspected. It has none of the spon- 

 taneity and vigor of the spring song, but is a low, rambling war- 

 ble. I have listened certainly a full minute while it continued 

 without interruption. An approach to this song may sometimes 

 be heard when the species is becoming silent in August, as I 

 have already stated ; while in September a decided reversion 

 towards the spring song is sometimes noticeable. 



Although the bird regularly sings in the autumn, at this season 

 its subdued song and retiring disposition render it easily over- 

 looked ; so that absence of records of song in the autumn at a 

 time when observation in other years has shown the bird to sing, 

 cannot be taken as a guarantee of silence, as it could be in the 

 case of a more conspicuous species. The precise limits of die 

 autumn song-period I have not yet been able clearly to define, 

 but it may be said in general terms that singing begins early m 

 September, continuing through this month and sometimes into 

 October. Extreme dates are August 24 and October 7 ; more 

 usual limits would fall in the first and fourth weeks of Septem- 

 ber. In several years I have noted imperfect songs in the fourth 

 week of August, about midway between the two seasons of 

 song. These seemingly misplaced songs I have usually consid- 

 ered as appertaining to the song-period from which they were 

 separated by, the least interval of time. But they may be wholly 

 aberrant ; or the two song-periods may sometimes be connected ; 

 or perhaps in some years the first song-period is prolonged and 

 the second does not occur ; for in rtore than one instance I have 

 noticed that an undue extension of the first song-period seems to 

 be at the expense of the second. Either of these suppositions 

 could be supported by my records of certain years, but recalling 

 the likelihood of the bird to be overlooked in the autumn, we 

 find ourselves justified iir no conclusions without more extended 

 data. 



How far birds of the year enter into the subject of change^ ot 

 song in the autumn with this species cannot at present be said ; 

 but a male bird shot while singing on September i, 1880, was in 

 fine plumage and bore every indication of being fully adult. I 

 find this species in the autumn- without much fat, and with 

 feather-growth continuing slightly into October. 



Aot. I. April, 1884. f37~/3S^' 



