Bi\LTIMORE ORIOLE. 
85 
tshoo and 'k'i 0 a a fuf a tea kerry another bird I have 
occasionally heard to call for hours, with some little variation, 
tu feo tea teo Uo too, in a loud, querulous, and yet almost lu- 
dicrously merry strain. At other intervals the sensations of 
solitude seem to stimulate sometimes a loud and interrog- 
atory note, echoed forth at intervals, Krry kerry ? and 
terminating plaintively k'rry k'rry k'rry, tu; the voice falling 
off very slenderly in the last long syllable, which is apparently 
an imitation from the Cardinal Grosbeak, and the rest is de- 
rived from the Crested Titmouse, whom they have already 
heard in concert as they passed through the warmer States. 
Another interrogatory strain which I heard here in the spring 
of 1830 was precisely, 'yip k'rry, 'yip, 'yip k'rry, very loud and 
oft repeated. Another male went in his ordinary key, tsherry 
tsherry, tshtpee tsh'rry, — notes copied from the exhaustless stock 
of the Carolina Wren (also heard on his passage), but modu- 
lated to suit the fancy of our vocalist. The female likewise 
sings, but less agreeably than the male. One which I had 
abundant opportunity of observing, while busied in the toil of 
weaving her complicated nest, every now and then, as a relief 
from the drudgery in which she was solely engaged, sung, in a 
sort of querulous and rather plaintive strain, the strange, un- 
couth syllables, 'ka 'kea kowa, keka keka, the final tones loud 
and vaulting, which I have little doubt were an imitation of the 
discordant notes of some South American bird. For many 
days she continued this tune at intervals without any variation. 
The male, also while seeking his food in the same tree with his 
mate, or 'while they are both attending on their unfledged 
brood, calls frequently in a low, friendly whisper, 'twait, Hu' it. 
Indeed, all the individuals of either sex appear pertinaciously 
to adhere for weeks to the same quaint syllables which they 
have accidentally collected. 
This bird then, like the Starling, appears to have a taste for 
mimicry, or rather for sober imitation. A Cardinal Grosbeak 
happening, very unusually, to pay us a visit, his harmonious 
* The last phrase loud and ascending, the tea plaintive, and the last syllable 
tender and echoing. 
