May., 1902. I 
THE CONDOR 
65 
A Study of Bird Songs, 
BY JNO. J. WILLIAMS 
CHAPTER II. COMMON AND SPECIAL NOTES. 
B efore considering some of the 
various bird notes in detail, I will 
quote one or two passages from 
Darwin’s “Descent of Man,” as being 
specially pertinent at this point: “The 
sounds uttered by birds offer in several 
respects the nearest analogy to language, 
for all the members of the same species 
utter the same instinctive cries expres- 
sive of their emotions, and all the kinds 
which sing, exert their power instinc- 
tively; but the actual song and even the 
call-notes are learnt from their parents 
or foster-parents.” (See chapter III.) 
No one acquainted with birds will 
gainsay the latter part of this quotation, 
for incidents in which parent birds 
have been seen teaching their young to 
sing or utter their owm songs or call- 
notes are of common occurrence, though 
it may be probable that young birds fre- 
quently, partially learn to repeat the 
various notes of their parents without 
the latter consciously aiding them. He 
also leaves the reader to infer that even 
though a crow’s vocal organs are struct- 
urally and essentially similar to those 
of the nightingale, no amount of repeti- 
tion or practice will teach him to sing 
like the latter. Further on, in chapter 
XIII, he says that “With birds the 
voice serves to express various emotions, 
such as distress, fear, anger, triumph or 
mere happiness. It is apparently some- 
times used to excite terror, as in the 
case of the hissing noise made by some 
nestling birds, Some 
social birds apparently call to each other 
for aid, and as they flit from tree to tree, 
the flock is kept together by chirp an- 
swering chirp. During the nocturnal 
migrations of geese and other water 
fowl, sonorous clangs from tne van may 
be heard in the darkness overhead an- 
swered by clangs in the rear. Certain 
cries serve as danger signals, which as 
the sportsman knows to his cost, are 
understood by the same species and by 
others. The domestic cock crows and 
the hummingbird chirps in triumph 
over a defeated rival.” 
Generally speaking, social birds are 
kept together by chirp answering chirp, 
as he says, but the call-note'of a species 
is not restricted to this use entirely. 
For instance what a common sight it is 
to see blackbirds, robins, goldfinches or 
meadowlarks congregated in trees or on 
meadows and each and every bird ut- 
tering a great variety of their notes or 
songs continuously, one trying to out- 
do another. Not only is this so in the 
mating season, but even in the midst of 
wdnter a gleam of sunlight will cause 
them to twitter in this way, apparently 
in a spirit of emulation partly, and also 
as a vent, I suppose, to their own bouy- 
ant spirits. Again many of us who 
have hunted game birds know that they 
have danger signals or warning notes 
which they use to advantage as occa- 
sion demands, and most of my study of 
special bird notes has been aided by 
studying the special notes of game birds 
primarily. These notes are used much 
more frequently by our two local spec- 
ies of quail than by other birds because 
the necessity of their use is more ur- 
gent. 
A sparrow will flirt its wings and tail 
vigorously and make indiscriminate use 
of any of its common notes, on the ap- 
proach of a person, disappearing quick- 
ly into some bush or hollow. With our 
mountain quail, { Oreortyx p. plumiferus) 
it is different. Instinctively he looks 
for some shelter to run to or if neces- 
sary to fly to, at the same time uttering 
his creaking, warning note, a rapid and 
nervous “cree-auk, cree-auk, cree-auk- 
ah” and some other inimitable chatter- 
ings, and quickly the flock gets ready 
for flight, or strikes out on the dead run 
for the high timber, as is the usual case. 
