66 
THIi CONDOR 
I Vol. IV 
If you follow close after them through 
the brush, they can be heard calling to 
each other with their call-note “kow 
kow, kow, kow” to keep the flock fairly 
united in its rapid march, but often- 
times as soon as you stop to listen to lo- 
cate them they are silent, save for the 
retreating scurry of their feet in the 
dead leaves and only when they are 
sure of their safety, will they make any 
real effort to gather themselves together 
by the use of the call note, 'fhese two 
examples illustrate. the difference in the 
two types. 
The first, an ordinary seed-eater, is 
sought by no one and knows it too, and 
often, more from surprise than real fear, 
he utters the first note that comes into 
his head, for I have frequently seen 
numbers of these birds glide quietl}" in- 
to their leafy shelters, leaving their 
comrades and mates to be surprised as 
they were. The quail though has 
learnt by exi)erience that while there 
is safety in flight, still the other mem- 
bers of the flock must be warned of the 
impending danger. For all that, other 
species of birds have and use their dan- 
ger notes, only because they are rarely 
as emphatic, we fail to notice them and 
besides these species do not need them 
ordinarily. 
For a long time I thought that dan- 
ger or other special notes were un- 
known to woodpeckers and in conse- 
(jnence was greatly surprised to hear a 
female Gairdner wood pecker ( 
p. gairdueri) utter a special note caused 
by extreme fear when pursued and al- 
most caught by one of our smaller 
hawks Another time I witnessed the 
death struggle of a severely wounded 
California woodpecker {Melaneipes f. 
bairdi), and for .some time previous to 
its death the bird uttered the most dis- 
tressing cries imaginable, which quickly 
drew, not one of its own species, but a 
ruby-crowned kinglet {Regulus calen- 
dula), whose anxious actions showed 
how thoroughly he sympathized with 
the stricken woodpecker. In this in- 
stance the notes uttered by tlie latter 
were those of extreme distre.ss but for 
all that the kinglet understood them 
and even hovered several times within 
a few feet of my head, as if to implore 
me to put the bird out of its agony. 
As an illustration of the difference 
between the call-note and the danger 
signal of some of our smallest birds I 
will take the notes of the California 
bush-tit ( Psaltriparus in. californicus). 
Why these mites of birds shouH use a 
wmrning signal when near human be- 
ings, is beyond me, as they are practi- 
cally unmolested by them at any time, 
yet such is the case. Here they flit in- 
cessantly, in small companies, from one 
bush to the next over the brush cover- 
ed hillsides, passing rapidly along usu- 
ally on a straight course, completely 
absorbed in the search for their minute 
insect food and uttering a continuous 
chorus of fine lisping ‘‘tsit it it tsee ee 
ee.” Frequently I have heard them 
coming some distance otT and have 
placed myself in the open, close to their 
line of travel in order to observe their 
actions better. Nearer they come un- 
til they are within arm’s reach and 
their call notes still sound as merrily as 
before. Suddenly one of them recog- 
nizes in me something strange and un- 
usual. Not a move have I made and 
yet first one and then another gives the 
warning note, an imperative little “tswit- 
tswit-tswit,” and as if by magic, they 
pass around me and some little distance 
away. Not one has flown directly 
away from me but for the sake of safety 
they have changed their course tempor- 
arily. In a minute or so their warning 
notes cease, they feel easier and their 
cheery little call-notes sound forth 
again as they resume their original di- 
rection through the bushes. In this 
case the cause of the warning note to- 
gether with its eft'ects on the flock, 
were self-evident, while the utility of 
the call-note lies in its keeping the 
rapidly moving flock together. Still to 
conclude that the call-note of a species 
is needed just to keep the flock united 
is a big step, for in seeming contradic- 
