144 
SINGING BIRDS. 
petd-petd-peto. This tender call of recognition was at length 
answered, and continued at interv^als for a minute or two ; they 
then changed their quick call into a slower peto pefd petd ; and 
now the natural note passed into the plaintive key, sounding 
like qvc-ah que-ah ; then in the same breath a jarring note like 
that of the Catbird, and in part like the sound made by put- 
ting the lower lip to the upper teeth, and calling ’ts/i' vah, 'tsh' 
vah. After this the call of kerry-kerry-kerry-kerij struck up 
with an echoing sound, heightened by the hollow bank of the 
river whence it proceeded. At length, more delicately than at 
first, in an under tone, you hear anew, and in a tender accent, 
peto peto peto. In the caprice and humor of our performer, 
tied by no rules but those of momentary feeling, the expression 
will perhaps change into a slow and full peet-peet-a-peet-a-peet, 
then a low and very rapid ker-ker-ker-her-ker-kerry, sometimes 
so quick as almost to resemble the rattle of a watchman. At 
another time his morning song commences like the gentle 
whispers of an aerial spirit, and then becoming high and clear 
like the voice of the nightingale, he cries keexta keeva kkeva 
keeva ; but soon falling into the quendous, the day-day-day-day- 
day-dait of the Chickadee terminates his perfonnance Imita- 
tive, as well as inventive, I have heard the Peto also sing 
something like the lively chatter of the Swallow, leta-leta-leta- 
letalit, and then vary into peto-peto-peto-peto-peto extremely 
quick. Unlike the warblers, our cheerful Peto has no trill, or 
any other notes than these simple, playful, or pathetic calls ; 
yet the compass of voice and the tone in which they are 
uttered, their capricious variety and their general effect, at the 
season of the year when they are heard, are quite as pleasing 
to the contemplative observer as the more exquisite notes of 
the summer songsters of the verdant forest. 
The sound of 'xvhip-tom-kelly, wliich I heard this bird utter, 
on the 17th of January, 1830, near Barnwell, in South Carolina, 
is very remarkable, and leads me to suppose that the species is 
also an inhabitant of the West India Islands, where Sloane 
attributes this note to the Red-eyed Flycatcher j but it is now 
known to be the note of a tropical species, the inreo longiros- 
